When is the right time to say good bye...

Aristo is a 14 year old cat with AIDS. He has been healthy and
playful and quite active all his life. He caught mice and birds and
flexes his muscle when a neighbor cat comes near our property.

This past few years he began to lose more and more weight even though
he has been eating and drinking normal amount of food and water (he
loves milk).

I have made a very bad mistake and allowed Demo, my previous cat, to
suffer a great deal before the vet suggested we put her to sleep. I
so very much want to avoid making the same mistake with Aristo.

Any suggestion what I should prepare for the unavoidable?
Sad and very worried.
pax

packat wrote:
Aristo is a 14 year old cat with AIDS. He has been healthy and
playful and quite active all his life. He caught mice and birds and
flexes his muscle when a neighbor cat comes near our property.

This past few years he began to lose more and more weight even though
he has been eating and drinking normal amount of food and water (he
loves milk).

I have made a very bad mistake and allowed Demo, my previous cat, to
suffer a great deal before the vet suggested we put her to sleep. I
so very much want to avoid making the same mistake with Aristo.

Any suggestion what I should prepare for the unavoidable?
Sad and very worried.
pax

We have one who is FIV positive also. He is about 17 years old, and has been
FIV positive for the last 5 or 6 years or so. He eats, sleeps, and is
generally just like any other old male cat. The vet is always amazed at how
good he looks whenever she comes by the house with her roving vets van. As
long as Smokey eats and sleeps and isn't obviously hurting, we will keep him
and care for him. Generally, its when they stop eating that you want to put
them down.

I would suggest making a list of things Aristo enjoys (playing,
hunting, eating, cuddling with you, etc.) If it gets to the point of
him doing few, or any, of the things on the list, you will know his
life is not enjoyable anymore. Also, watch for physical signs, like
looking for a hiding place. Animals who are very ill will hide
themselves so they are not vulnerable in the wild.

If he is losing a fair amount of weight, you might want to call your
vet. It's possible he might have hyperthyroidism,which is treatable
with inexpensive medication. It might be a good idea to get him a
blood workup anyway just to see if anything else is going on.

Lastly, make sure he's getting a high quality diet, preferably wet.
Something like Innova Evo is higher in calories, for instance.

Please keep us posted.

Rene

On Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:46:41 -0700 (PDT), packat
wrote:

Aristo is a 14 year old cat with AIDS. He has been healthy and
playful and quite active all his life. He caught mice and birds and
flexes his muscle when a neighbor cat comes near our property.

This past few years he began to lose more and more weight even though
he has been eating and drinking normal amount of food and water (he
loves milk).

I have made a very bad mistake and allowed Demo, my previous cat, to
suffer a great deal before the vet suggested we put her to sleep. I
so very much want to avoid making the same mistake with Aristo.

Any suggestion what I should prepare for the unavoidable?
Sad and very worried.
pax

I assume he's been to the vet to check on any simple issues?

You can't win on this subject though, so I'll give you my standard
advice on "when". Either you will feel awful that you made your cat
suffer, or you'll feel awful that you put him away too soon. You're
going to feel awful either way so you simply do your best. Not a big
help I know, but not eating is a pretty good sign. Since he is eating
but losing weight, it isn't time yet.

On Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:23:13 -0400, dgk wrote:

You can't win on this subject though, so I'll give you my standard
advice on "when". Either you will feel awful that you made your cat
suffer, or you'll feel awful that you put him away too soon. You're
going to feel awful either way so you simply do your best. Not a big
help I know, but not eating is a pretty good sign. Since he is eating
but losing weight, it isn't time yet.

Our Moe lingered with cancer for a year. We said we would let him go
as long as he didn't seem to be in pain and could conduct his normal
activities. We never expected him to last a year. It was painful for
us to watch, but he never complained. He continued to eat while
wasting away. You don't really appreciated the term "skin and bones"
until you've held a critter in that condition. Yet still he was able
to jump onto the counters, our laps, etc. Then literally overnight he
was no longer able to do so and on that day we went to the vet.

wrote:
On Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:23:13 -0400, dgk wrote:

You can't win on this subject though, so I'll give you my standard
advice on "when". Either you will feel awful that you made your cat
suffer, or you'll feel awful that you put him away too soon. You're
going to feel awful either way so you simply do your best. Not a big
help I know, but not eating is a pretty good sign. Since he is eating
but losing weight, it isn't time yet.

Our Moe lingered with cancer for a year. We said we would let him go
as long as he didn't seem to be in pain and could conduct his normal
activities. We never expected him to last a year. It was painful for
us to watch, but he never complained. He continued to eat while
wasting away. You don't really appreciated the term "skin and bones"
until you've held a critter in that condition. Yet still he was able
to jump onto the counters, our laps, etc. Then literally overnight he
was no longer able to do so and on that day we went to the vet.

Yes. You really can't win. Like the gambler said, (and it applies to cats as
well as people) "You can't win, you can't break even, and you can't even get
out of the game."
The most traumatic day of my life waqs June 10, 2011. My cat B-K, had
poisoned himself by drinking water contaminated with "Round-up" weed killer,
and had been sick for the previous two days. The Vet had had him overnight
the day before, but couldn't help him. I didn't want him to suffer, but I
didn't want to put him down if he had a chance of recovering, either. So,
all I could do was make him as comfortable as possible, and wait. When it
was obvious he wasn't going to make it, the vet was out of town and it was
late in the evening. He died at 11:00 PM on Friday night. I'll never forget
that miserable day, even if I live another lifetime.

Aristo is recovering very nicely. He has gained some weight during the
past weeks. Not as light as feather as the day I started this
thread. He is now almost his usual self. He licked his bowl clean
yesterday, and start to have a conversation with me when I got home
after work as he used to do.
But I will keep your suggestion to have him checked regularly. I will
try Innova Evo, hope he will like it.
Thank you so much for your support.
pax

Thank you for the update. I'm glad he's doing ok. Evo makes a number
of flavors, so I'm sure he'll like one of them. Ours really like the
duck.

Rene

Rene wrote:
Thank you for the update. I'm glad he's doing ok. Evo makes a number
of flavors, so I'm sure he'll like one of them. Ours really like the
duck.

Rene

My cats like duck too. But then, my wife and I like duck. I usually roast
two of them at the same time, positioned cross-wize in the turkey roaster. I
stuff them with corn bread stuffing made with hot Italian sausage and orange
sections. I make an orange sause out of orange juice, brandy, and corn
starch to pour on them.... I wonder why I thought of that now....Oh! I
know.....Its getting near dinner time, and I'm hungry!

On Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:08:01 -0700, "Bill Graham"
wrote:

Rene wrote:
Thank you for the update. I'm glad he's doing ok. Evo makes a number
of flavors, so I'm sure he'll like one of them. Ours really like the
duck.

Rene

My cats like duck too. But then, my wife and I like duck. I usually roast
two of them at the same time, positioned cross-wize in the turkey roaster. I
stuff them with corn bread stuffing made with hot Italian sausage and orange
sections. I make an orange sause out of orange juice, brandy, and corn
starch to pour on them.... I wonder why I thought of that now....Oh! I
know.....Its getting near dinner time, and I'm hungry!

Oh, that sounds so good. What time is dinner?