Aries, Your Time Was Much To Short Options

[AriesVesta]

Three Fridays ago I came home from work to find my male cat Aries in the bathroom (not uncommon, both cats love the bathroom). However he didn't come greet me and was just laying there looking a bit off. I interacted with him, picked him up and put him on the bed, he seemed uninterested and not purring. I was a little worried so I opened some wet cat food, normally this would get a huge response, both him and his sister would come running from anywhere in the apartment at the sound of the lid opening. He again was not interested, he sniffed it and that was it. I opened some canned tuna to see if that would work and again nothing. I decided to wait till morning to see how he was doing and if no changes we were going to the animal hospital. Next morning with no changes we took him in, he had several X-rays and blood tests, we got some prescription food which I had to syringe feed him. The next day you could hear his breathing and it seemed very shallow so we went back to the vets for more x-rays and found he had some build up in his lungs. He was given something to break it up and his blood work showed that his liver enzymes were up. The doctor wanted to take another blood test for heart disease so we did that as well. That night he peed while sitting at the water bowel and didn't seem to realize he did. Before he was still using the liter box. We were also giving him antibiotics in case he had an infection. These just seemed to make him unhappy, he kept getting up to find a new spot to lay, like he couldn't get comfortable. Next day we went back in, his breathing was odd again, not shallow but you could hear him breathing. X-rays came back with much less build up in the lungs, so now we had to wait for the heart tests. Tuesday came and went with little change, we stopped the antibiotics since it seemed to make him uncomfortable and he slept a little better Tuesday. Tuesday evening we got the results of the heart test, there was something up with his heart. Wednesday we went in for ultrasounds to learn that he had HCM and possibly liver cancer. The vet recommended we put him to sleep because he was extremely sick and would need very aggressive treatments. He was just about to turn 6. I decided to put him to sleep, but I am now having regrets (which im sure is normal) so I'm looking for other peoples opinions. This cat was my life, I love his sister equally but he and I had a closer relationship. This is the worst thing I've had to go through so far in my life, and I just wanted to know if I made the right decision, my logic was if they could fix the liver he would need surgery and probably a feeding tube since he wasn't really eating on his own (he would lick up the gravy from the wet food and what I made him eat with the syringe). First he would have to survive the surgery which was already risky with a heart condition then recover while he had to take several heart meds to see which ones would work for him. All of this to just extend his life somewhat, not cure him. He HATED the vets and traveling I feel so horrible for taking him in 4 times in 5 days only to have to put him to sleep. They said his body temp was 5 degrees lower than normal and he still was peeing without realizing it and hadn't had a bowel movement for at least 5 days. When they brought him into the room, he was crying about being held by the attendant, once he saw my roommates and myself he calmed down and I pet his nose (always calms him) and he went to sleep on his side stretched out like he always does. I could see him dreaming, his eyes moved around and his paw twitched. This just made it even harder to make that decision, it didn't seem like he was suffering at that point. Was it the right choice to let him go?

[kurt_t]

Yes, you made the right decision, and yes it's normal to second guess yourself and question your decision. Just about everyone in this community who's had to euthanize a pet has gone through that process, and it is agonizing. I had similar considerations when I had to put down my cat Flo. She hated going to the vet and she hated the car, and I knew if I'd made any last ditch efforts to keep her alive, that's all her life would have been, getting in the car and going to the vet for treatment after treatment. I knew she didn't want to spend her final days that way. And it sounds like Aries was down to his final days, or his final weeks anyway, even though he was such a young cat.