dgk wrote:
On Mon, 24 Jun 2013 21:18:25 -0400, buglady
wrote:

On 6/24/2013 7:24 PM, wrote:
We are struggling with what to do, including whether to have her
put to sleep, and if so, when.

As far as trying to save or prolong her life, the checkup and tests
ran a few hundred dollars, which we can afford, but costs over
$1,000 would be difficult or unrealistic for us.

Any advice would be appreciated.

.............I just went through this same agony with a cat
diagnosed/confirmed as having nasal lymphoma. A cat who won't smell
won't eat. Appetite stimulant worked and she put on weight. She
was on steroids but, in reality, those only have an effect for a
short amount of time. Cats resist mouth breathing. As my vet put
it, they'd rather breathe through a straw than open the mouth to
breathe. She already was doing that occasionally when I stressed
her out with the daily pill. A tumor was also forming under her eye
by this time and she would occasionally leak bloody serum out of her
eyes. We had struggled for a long time with a secondary bacterial
infection, which we finally beat with a new med. But the poor thing
had had stuff crammed or squirted down her throat for about 2 months
and was heartily sick of it. Not to mention subQs occasionally and
once being in hospital for IV meds/fluids.

And a rhinoscopy and biopsy which ran me a thou, but I decided that I
needed the extra diagnostics to verify that it was cancer. That I
wouldn't be happy if I didn't know. The nose is a restricted area to
work in and my vet, like most vets, didn't have the tools to get a
biopsy. The pathology report took so long to come back combined with
primary treating vet at speciality clinic being out of town that 2
weeks went by before he bothered to call back, which was days after
he returned to town. I had been willing to try an oral chemo drug,
but by the time he called it was too late - she was over the bridge.
Just as well I guess as Leukeran is related to mustard gas and had
to be handled with gloves. I could not picture how I was going to
get that down her throat in one go.

When the appetite stimulant wore off the steroids didn't do a thing
WRT eating. And she would look at me suspiciously and run whenever
I got near her. She'd also park herself in one spot and not move
when she wasn't drugged up. I just got to feeling that without the
drugs she'd be just as happy to leave. And when cats make up their
minds, they go.

Despite her cancer, otherwise you wouldn't know she was sick. So I
struggled, as you are, with the concept of putting a cat to sleep who
didn't look all that horrible. Weight was good, coat was gorgeous,
what a horrible horrible irony.

But eventually the tumor (which already made her lift her head to
swallow food) would block off enough of the nasal passage in the
back to make breathing through her nose almost impossible. And by
the time she would be mouth breathing all the time she would be in
terrible distress.

I felt at the time that it was too early. But this was one I didn't
want to be late on and didn't want to risk not having a vet
available on the weekend or holiday. So I sent her on.

I'd take your kitty into the vet and have him check breathing,
number of respirations per minute, whether breathing is shallow or
not, and have another talk. My father died of lung cancer and told
me it hurt to breathe. Cats hide pain pretty well. But if she's
not shallow breathing at this point, she's probably doing pretty
well. ASk vet what signs you could monitor that would tell you
she's in distress.

That's about all you can do.
Good luck to you and your kitty.

buglady
take out the dog before replying

It's a decision that you just can't win. Either you're going to feel
awful that you euthanized your cat too soon, or you're going to feel
awful that you made the cat suffer because you couldn't bear to let
go. Just be prepared to feel awful and do the best you can.

I also had a cat, my favorite, come down with a leukemia at around age
15. He had collapsed and almost died. My vet said that if I wanted to
save him I would have to take him to the specialty vet and I did so.
They said that he could live for another two years with a decent
quality of life, so I had them do what they could. After four very
expensive days (several thousand $) I came to get him and he was
petrified and just miserable looking. He also had the worst case of
diarrhea I can imagine.

I had to alternate giving him prednisone and leukeran, with the gloves
and all. I hated having to get those pills down his throat and he
hated it as well. He only lived for maybe five more months, and he
never climbed the cat tree again so I have to assume that he was
nauseous the whole time.

I would not do it again that way. Maybe I will make myself miserable
next time by doing it too soon, but I will not make a trusting
companion suffer like that.

Do what you think is best and then you know that at least you did your
best. That's a minor comfort, but the best I can offer. You have our
purrs.

Yes.
We human beings understand what the doctors are doing, what the choices are,
and why we are suffering in the hopes of the reward of an extension of our
lives. Cats can't understand any of this. They only know that they are being
tortured, and they donl;t know why or what they did wrong that caused you to
do this to them. Why inflict this on them? Far better to put them down and
let them die in peace. Give them a shot of morphine, so they think
everything's OK, and let them go to sleep forever....