Sorry to hear of your sad loss.

I lost my 17 year old cat in the same way and i know how shocking it is. Cats with renal failure go downhill so quickly. My vet diagnosed renal failure in the same way as yours, ie by feeling abdomin and by how she smelt. She was also totally dehydrated. I was so unprepared for the diagnosis and asked if she could be put on a drip to hydrate her. The vet did this really for my benefit and took some blood tests to prove her kidneys were not working. The vet was right all along and 2 hours later I found myself making that horrible decision. I think this is such a common way for cats to go that vets know through experience what the results will be and try to save you the expense.

Dont feel guilty about anything, your decision was made through love x

Hi I'm so sorry for your loss but I feel the vet made the right decision for your cat. The reason why I say this as that I watched my sisters elderly cat get diagnosed with chronic renal failure in a similar way to your cat and then just suffer for 3 weeks while my sister battled to help make him better. She was even rehydrating him sub cu with drips at home and it just distressed the cat and he was really unhappy and sick. Eventually my sister realised the best for him would be to put him to sleep. She said she'd wished she's put him to sleep when he was diagnosed as it was horrible to see him suffer so much. With renal failure you can only prolong life, it's not a curable disease. I have had renal failure myself and I can tell you it is a horrible illness and I knew what was happening.

when having a beloved pet put to sleep there's always the question of 'did i do the right thing?' my answer to that is, if the animal is suffering and there's no hope of relief, it's the kindest thing to do for them. You made the right decision for your cat even though it's a horrible decision to have to make.

__________________

Owned by Ratty girls Hera, Athena, Boomer and Kitty the Cat
RIP Apollo and Starbuck, together again at the Rainbow Bridge. Till we meet again.

Sweetie went through it all with my 18 yr beautifull Muffin, you are whipping yourself darling, as we all have done, your vet has seen it time & time. You could not do more than your best. Stop punishing yourself, it's gonna hurt for a long long time, you were a fantastic mum, eventually you will stop thinking why did I not do.... & start the wonderfull memory magic of your lil ones memory,,,, which will never be forgotton.
You talk to us about what lil one was like & lil ones mischief, cos we are all here to listen, laugh & cry with you.

It's helped a lot finding these forums and just being able to write about things and find out others have had the exact same thing happen.

This house has had many pets over the years such as dogs, parrots, guinea pigs, hamsters and rats and even a young wounded crow which was probably shot and we nursed back to health but unfortunately he could never fly again and had lost sight in one eye so we ended up building a large outdoor cage and letting them live in it and during the day we would open the cage to give him lots of freedom. We named that crow Boris and boy did he enjoy his food and eating a lot and he lived eight good years.

Here's another picture from about a year ago when he was so healthy and i just noticed he seems to have so much more of a sparkle in his eyes than he did the last few weeks. He was a real star for the camera and seemed to know when you put a camera on him as he would then pose a bit.



Thanks everyone for making things a little easier. I'll miss him forever more as i do all our pets but the memories live forever and this has got me thinking and i may make a website devoted to just the pets we have had over the years.