Jevin
Chameleon Enthusiast
Making this post as yesterday my family took our oldest cat, Larry, to the vet with the understanding that he may be put down as his body seems to be starting to fail him. He is a rescue that we adopted in 2004, and to be honest, he chose us. As soon as we met him, we knew he was the one. Unfortunately as he was a rescue, all we knew about his past was that he was found living in a Safeway parking lot and was thought to be around a year old. He is at least 16 years old but could be 18 years old.
Recently he has been having trouble with relieving himself in the litterbox and doesn't jump much due to arthritis. However he is smart and as such has just adapted how he does things. In the last month however he has not used the litterbox once and in the last week has had nothing but mucusy diarrhea.
There's more to the story than what I've posted, but it gives most of the info needed. Anyways, at the vet while the whole family is bawling the vet did agree that he has severe arthritis in all his joints and appearance wise was an elderly cat. As standard procedure, they gave the option to try a few treatments to help him in his old age and offered the option to run blood work on him.
The main point was how his quality of life is, which is still very good just he's in pain from arthritis and some things he's doing could be because of that. It even came up that if you catch him relieving himself outside of the litterbox, he looks at you with an ashamed look before looking away, he knows he shouldn't be doing it. We decided he deserved to try the treatments that could help him in his old age.
Anyways, despite his appearance and frail looking walk, he still put up quick a fight with the vets and surprised them by how strong he still is. Also surprised them with his bloodwork which came back as if he was a much younger cat, still acceptable and not at all what they expected considering his age.
Long story short, he has developed a heart murmur and has been put on blood thinners, arthritis medication, pain medication and a stool hardener. Fingers crossed because my family knows that we will never find another cat like Larry, he is truly a unique animal.
Here's his bloodwork, for those interested.
And the old man cat himself.
Recently he has been having trouble with relieving himself in the litterbox and doesn't jump much due to arthritis. However he is smart and as such has just adapted how he does things. In the last month however he has not used the litterbox once and in the last week has had nothing but mucusy diarrhea.
There's more to the story than what I've posted, but it gives most of the info needed. Anyways, at the vet while the whole family is bawling the vet did agree that he has severe arthritis in all his joints and appearance wise was an elderly cat. As standard procedure, they gave the option to try a few treatments to help him in his old age and offered the option to run blood work on him.
The main point was how his quality of life is, which is still very good just he's in pain from arthritis and some things he's doing could be because of that. It even came up that if you catch him relieving himself outside of the litterbox, he looks at you with an ashamed look before looking away, he knows he shouldn't be doing it. We decided he deserved to try the treatments that could help him in his old age.
Anyways, despite his appearance and frail looking walk, he still put up quick a fight with the vets and surprised them by how strong he still is. Also surprised them with his bloodwork which came back as if he was a much younger cat, still acceptable and not at all what they expected considering his age.
Long story short, he has developed a heart murmur and has been put on blood thinners, arthritis medication, pain medication and a stool hardener. Fingers crossed because my family knows that we will never find another cat like Larry, he is truly a unique animal.
Here's his bloodwork, for those interested.
And the old man cat himself.
Best of luck to him and your family, our family dog is deaf and blind at this point and has 5 teeth left. Never easy to see you pets get old
