Sunday, July 6, 2014

Tough Decisions - Ally's Kidneys are Failing


We are very fortunate to have a lovely gentle pussycat - Ally - in our family.  She is an SPCA special.  We went to choose a kitten about fifteen years ago and ended up coming home with an adult cat - Ally.  She picked us rather than the other way around.  Of all the cats and kittens she was the only one who wanted to know the people with a 2 and 4 year old.  She was loving and gentle even then.

The vets best guess was that she was between 1 and 2 years old when we adopted her so she is about 16 years old now.  Recently she has been losing weight so we have been going backwards and forwards to the vet with her.  A couple of weeks ago we received the news that her kidneys are failing her.  Renal failure is the number one cause of death in domestic cats.  

She has been put on a special diet of renal cat food and Ipakitine powder.  The vet suggested we bring her back after a week of her new diet so they could do some more blood tests and keep her in for a urine test.  This would allow them to know what stage of renal failure she is in.  There is no cure, so it is all about management.

Ally hates going in the cat cage and to the vet.  She gets so stressed and vomits and poos in the cat cage.  On the way there and on the way home.  Last time she did a massive projectile vomit just as I was parking the car at the top of our driveway.  I tried to let her know she was home but it was too late, vomit was everywhere.

Also she does not like the special renal cat food, I think she thinks we are torturing her through bland and yucky food.  So from now on it is whatever she wants.  As Mr S said, if he found out he was only going to live a little bit longer he would want to eat what he enjoyed.  (Plus he is always slipping her a little bit of fish, chicken or steak, while he is cooking).

Also we have decided not to put her through anymore visits to the vet, she hates it, it is not going to assist much in the long run and we would prefer she lives out the quiet life at home, moving from bed to bed and knee to knee.  When the time comes, the vet can come to her.

So for now every day is special and to be enjoyed.  

6 comments:

Maria said...

If she could talk, she'd probably say, thank you.

Tina Short said...

I can relate with what you are going through. One of our cats went through the same thing... he knew we were trying to help him but in the end it was a kindness to let him go.
Hugs

June said...

I can so relate to this, I hope your vet is as gentle and kind as mine was - both with me and Floyd.

Leonie said...

oh so sad and so sweet - I am sure she will be missed and miss you too xx

Craftysquirrel said...

Having just had to syringe feed our young cat when he got sick a couple of weeks ago ( fortunately well again now) I can empathise with the agony of trips to the vet . Sometimes doing nothing is the kindest thing - if she is not in pain or distress then I would make the choice you did too. I can imagine how attached you are after having her for such a long time - I hope she is enjoying all the lap time she is sure to be getting.

Helen said...

awwww. sweet. Wish we could all end our days where we are loved and with dignity. So nice.