Caturday: Making Life-and-Death Decisions for Furry Family Members
When you have a family of cats, you end up facing some of the same difficult decisions that human families face, the most difficult among these being end-of-life issues.
A couple of months ago, Happy Cat changed overnight from happy to sad. One day he was his affectionate self, nurturing the other cats; the next day, he was walking in circles, stumbling into his food bowl, and acting confused--and was clearly blind.
After local vets ruled out physiological reasons for the behavior and the blindness, we took him to a neurology center for an MRI. He has a brain tumor, a melangioma.
Options we were given included very expensive surgery ($15K), radiology (nearly as expensive and would require frequent out of town trips), or medicine (that would not cure or even put him into remission but would make him more comfortable).
Beyond the expense of the surgery, there was a bigger picture. Happy Cat is a geriatric cat, a street rescue between the ages of 14-16, with asthma, frequent and long-lasting upper respiratory infections, and weak lungs since at least 2012. Trips to vets are accompanied by panic attacks that have taken up to an hour on oxygen for recovery. He survived the MRI, but there were questions about that -- and we signed a DNR. Could he survive brain surgery?
If we could find the $15K (which would be money out the door if he did not survive), and if he did survive the brain surgery, what could we expect going forward, given the issue with his lungs, his blindness (probably would not be cured with the surgery), and then whatever else might come with old age as he has already passed into the "older generation" domain.
The same questions, somewhat altered, applied to radiology. Would it be worth all those panic attacks? Would he survive those panic attacks? What would it give him as a lease on life? (Apparently, far less than surgery, but for about the same price and the harrowing multiple trips.)
Not unlike having to make the decision for humans: a desperate dash after one possible cure after another when facing a life-threatening illness at an advanced age or hospice and gentle final time with family and friends. After talking with his local vet, we decided on the conservative approach.
Happy Cat is now on home hospice, with medicine. He is surrounded by supportive family and friends. We will walk to the Rainbow Bridge together.
For more posts about Happy Cat, click HERE.
For more Caturday posts, click HERE.
Read more posts about cats.
 |
Follow MSI Press on Twitter, Face Book, and Instagram.
Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC?
Check out information on how to submit a proposal.
Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our author au pair services will mentor you through the process.
Want an author-signed copy of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.
Julia Aziz, signing her book, Lessons of Labor, at an event at Book People in Austin, Texas.
Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our Authors' Pages.
Check out our rankings -- and more -- HERE.
Comments
Post a Comment