Hi

I had a lovely cat of about eighteen years old who was hiding a lot this past week and especially the last two days. It was drinking a lot and finding it difficult to get on the toilet. It was also tired a lot and not eating food.

Today i bought a special cat box and got the bus over to the vets in the next town after making an appointment. The poor cat was scared of the box and i had to reassure it the whole journey and i thought it was just suffering from a treatable condition such as cat constipation or maybe diabetes.

The vet asked questions and i said it was drinking a lot and going off on it's own and hiding and sleeping a lot and not eating. He thought it was thin and put both hands on part of it's body and said the kidneys had shrunk. He ultimately said the cat was going to die due to kidney failure but could go home with me and may have at maximum five days to live.

No blood tests were done and no urine samples taken. All the vet did was feel around the cat and smell his breath and take into account what i told him.

I felt devasted about all this and decided the cat would be put to sleep as the vet said there was absolutely no hope. I have paid extra to get him cremated and extra yet for him to be returned so i can spread the ashes.

Now sitting on the bus home i just didn't feel right so started poking around the internet and finding that blood tests should be taken and none of this was done. I asked the vet if there was any treatment whatsoever and he said no. He basically made me feel very guilty and said the cat would suffer if allowed to go home but i could do so if i wished but there was no treatment to alleviate the pain if i took him home.

I don't care about money i just wanted my cat to live and i feel now sitting at home that i made a mistake and that the vet didn't do things right and should have taken a blood sample.

£53 to put a cat to sleep and not even a blood sample taken to ensure it was terminal. Another £73 to get him cremated and get the ashes back and i don't even know if they will return the proper ashes.

Yes he was thinner than perhaps a normal cat is and yes perhaps he was very ill but reading some Google pages i am led to believe that maybe he could have lived a quality life with some treatment rather than the easy way out of the vet just putting him down.

I guess i'm feeling bad and i just needed to find a forum devoted to pets and ask if it's normal that blood tests were not taken and if you can indeed tell how bad a cats kidneys are by just feeling hard and firm the sides of the cat and smelling it's breath ?

I don't know if the vet said he was suffering from chronic renal failure or acute renal failure but how can they tell without taking blood or urine samples since doesn't diabetes show similiar symptons.

I feel i have let my cat down and didn't realize any of this until reading up on the subject now when i got home and i was just too dazed in the vet's surgery. I thought it was simple cat constipation.

You expect your local vet to treat your cat and do the absolute best for it and stuff the money and stuff the time it takes but not even a blood test.

I feel like reporting them but maybe thats just the shock of losing my cat but they didn't even put him on a drip despite being deydrated. It was just sleep.

I'm eating myself up inside and i think i let my cat down and i would just like to know if a vet really can make such life and death situations without taking blood samples or urine samples from the cat ?