Miss Kitty was almost 15 years old and we have had her for about 14 of those years. She was the last of the cats who wandered over from a nearby barn and she was the first to get us into the adoption business. She had been losing weight the past 6 months so we took Miss Kitty in for a checkup and blood work. The news was not good. Our vet, a good cat doctor, suggested triaditis due to her previous severe IBD epidodes over the years. Her neutrophil white blood cell count indicated an active infection or inflammation and her liver enzyme levels indicated cell death. She had stopped eating and was throwing up. The most likely choices were triaditis, a somewhat controversial cluster of problems that might be treatable, and secondary liver tumors from cancer, not really treatable.
You go with what you can treat so this week we threw everything at the triaditis. Pain meds, anti-nausea med, two antobiotics, steroid shots, fluid replacement, an amino acid breakdown product that helps to repair liver damage and stabilize liver enzymes, a B12 shot, and an appetite stimulant. We also began force feedings to build her up.
Miss kitty improved for a couple of days this week and then crashed last night. She spent the night hiding under a bookshelf in obvious distress but no severe pain yet. Looking at her I could see the first signs she was going downhill. Her quality of life was slipping away and her blood work had not improved. After spending most of the night with her we made the difficult decision to end her life as peacefully as possible. We consulted with our vet. He had mixed feelings about it, possibly wanting to try for another week. He could see her decline from a few days ago and said he understood our decision since we knew Miss Kitty better than he did. If I thought there was a chance to cure her I would have tried it but I could see her beginning to suffer and I swore that would never happen if there was no hope. I do not want to be one of those people who keep a furkid around for a couple of more weeks out of selfishness, causing them pain. The only thing that was keeping her going at this point was the Buprenex pain medication. After discussing it with the vet we made the final decision.
Miss Kitty's catheter had worked itself out of the vein so the vet gave her a mixture of pain drugs before shaving her hind leg and injecting the phenobarbitol solution directly into the vein. This would sting had she been awake. We said our goodbyes to Miss Kitty and she purred and rubbed her head against our hands. The shot then kicked in quickly and she went into a deep sleep. The phenobarbitol injection took about 10 seconds to fully work but she was already knocked out so she did not register any response.
We took Miss Kitty home and buried her in the back yard with her angel kitty toy. Now I am selfishly allowing myself to cry tears of loss, something we did not want to do while comforting her in her last moments of consciousness. Miss Kitty had a long and wonderful indoor life with us. We miss our little Queenie so much and the pain is almost unbearable. That is ok though because she is not hurting any more and this day is about Miss Kitty, not us. She was a very special kitty and we tried to give her the best over her years with us. There is a huge hole in our hearts now from her loss but it was the best thing for her. I will see you again one day, little girl. Love you. Here is Miss Kitty with her angel kitty toy.