I'll say second worse thing to go through, the first is losing a loved one (mother,father, wife, husband, sister and brother) to a terminal desease (like cancer and such).

@OP.
I feel for ya man December of last year I had to put down my female Rottie, we had her for about 15 years but she got to a point where she stopped eating and she couldn't walk anymore.

As much as i love my cats, the worst thing you can do is let an animal suffer, it cant tell you its feeling bad or in pain, if its dying the best thing you can do is to stop its suffering, in the long run it becomes selfish to keep it alive to make you happy when its seriously ill, a member of the family has a cat that you can lift with acouple of fingers, you can feel its bones, it has a large growth on its side, it barely eats, it struggles to breath, they wont get it put down till it dies, the animal is suffering, they say they love the animal to much, they dont care for the animal they care to much about themselves, its terrible to never have to see them again, but its the right thing to do by them, because they cant help themselves.

I can relate to this

Mine passed away 3 weeks ago from kidney failure and pneumonia. A week before my birthday. He also stopped eating. I can't go into details because I'm still grieving horribly. I had him for over 10 years. He grew up with me. I quit my job and dropped out of school this semester because of my depression over this. I don't have many friends so I got too attached to him so this is my fault. He slept in my bed every night. I can't even sleep in my room right now. Some people say its just a cat but to me he was like my child. I pray every night that he is happy and that he know I love him and miss him. I know that he is up in animal heaven playing in a big field with sun shining down on him with other animals.

Its going to take some time to get through this. There are many people going through things like this. What I do is just think of the good times I had with my pet and you should too. He/she knows you love him and took care if him the best you could. I'll pray to you everyone else who posted in here tonight.

Animals are natural survivors, but when they are going to die they don't keep clinging to life. Imo, and just based on what you posted, she's trying to tell you she's not happy anymore. You can maybe give her a little comfort, but if you can't afford to treat her you're really holding onto her for yourself. I'm not trying to sound callous, but extending her suffering isn't going to be good for either of you.

Thanks for the kind words and advice everyone. She started making a squealing noise last night, like a faint dog's cry in her purr, and would suddenly jump up and change position, making me think she was experiencing spikes of pain. She completely stopped eating as well, so I took all of this as the sign that it was time and took her in yesterday afternoon.

She fought him every step of the way, leading to a botched first injection. They had to sedate her for the second, succesful try. It wasn't at all peaceful like with our dog a few years ago and I feel pretty bad about having to hold her down throughout as she just stared at me, my imagination running wild wondering what she was thinking. Silly, I know.

Anyway, thanks again folks.

You did the right thing.I had to make this decision with my dog,it's not a easy one but it's definitely the right call.

Well I went to bed last night and was promptly greeted with my oldest cat having a seizure under my bed. My wife found the cat on my son's bed this morning, she won't wake up, is very lethargic when she is up she's kind of wobbling all over the place and unresponsive.

What irritates me is that my wife made an appointment with the vet and the vet wants to do an examination on the cat. My wife told them she just wants to have her put to sleep. But the vet claims it's their policy to examine the cat. WTF?

Find a different vet. Maybe one that is not trying to get you to pay for his kids college education in your time of grief.

BTW, the humane society would do this for you.

Yes. It will.

Well, my wife called she was crying. Turns out the cat had a heart attack and a seizure. So, she had her put her to sleep.

I'm so sorry Wingus, I can only imagine how much it hurt to do it. Just READING that post made me feel horribly guilty. :/

Tallest, Happiness is a mistress that knows no love for you is it? :c

Meh, I'm just glad our cat didn't have to suffer. She had the heart attack and seizure last night. My wife said she purred this morning and at the vet. Guess she was saying it was ok.

As for my happiness? Ehh...I roll with the punches...pissed off. But I take 'em as they come. What else can I do?

Oh, I wasn't mocking you, it just seems you constantly have crap roll your way. :c

Yeah, I don't have the best of luck. If I were a Fallout character I'd be the only glitched to not have 40 points assigned to my SPECIAL. I'd get like a 1 in Intelligence and a 1 in Luck.

Wingus and Tallest, I'm sorry, for both of you.

Losing a loved pet is one of the hardest things in life. I've experienced it far too many times myself but unfortunately that's the price we pay for being allowed to enjoy the company of an animal. I lost my most adorable little chinchilla of 3 years old on January 2nd this year, after he had gotten into a fight with his daughter. The stress proved to be too much for him and he died a few hours later.
A lost my cat of 14 last March, after she had a stroke. We called the vet to put her to sleep, but she choked to death and died in my arms. The vet arrived one minute too late. These are just the two recent ones but there are at least 8 more I lost over the span of 10 years or so. It's hard stuff, but what can you do...

I wish you two the very best coping with this, hard as it is.

One year we had gotten a new cat. He was three months old and would sleep on my head, watch TV with me. When I went to bed he'd jump up on the bed with me and sleep next to me on the pillow. He was always purring. He was a little Tuxedo cat. He was my cat. He'd sit by the door and wait for me to come home. One day, he was in obvious pain. I left for work and had an appointment to take him to the vet after I got home. My wife called and said that he had passed away and she wanted to know what to do with him. I told her nothing because I wanted to take care of him. I got home, he was laying in my recliner, curled up in a ball like he had been sleeping. I started to cry. It was the worst thing because he was so young and he followed me around. When I picked him up to wrap him in a towel to bury him he was still warm. It was so sad. My wife offered to get me a new cat but I've refused. The cat we just put to sleep was my wife's. We have one more that is our son's. I don't expect his to live now that her friend is gone. She'll probably die now of depression.

It's alright, I was watching a nature documentary called Africa last week and I cried numerous times watching the suffering humans cause animals. The commentary by David Attenborough was gut renching at times. By the last scene there was a blind baby Rhino who needed a cataracts operation, who could quite possibly be one of the last of his species (due to greedy through hunting) and when I heard him call out for help and I looked at the innocent and unknowing look on his face of the world he has been born into I literally wept at how such suffering can be caused to something so natural and beautiful.


Wingus I know how upsetting losing a pet can be. People love pets as if they were family and the connection people make with them can be sometimes more important than that of another human. But if she is suffering and in pain at least she will no longer feel it anymore, at least she will be at peace. I'm sure in her own way she knows you care and although she won't understand in the same way you do I am sure she trusts you to do the best thing for her and I am sure you will. Love hurts but for that time you are together and happy those are the times you must try to remember and not the way she is now.

Wish you all the best

If they were close, maybe... The cat that died last March, named Muis, has a sister, Mikki. Twins, so you'd think Mikki would simply... fade away I guess after the death of her sister. Instead, she actually get more active. She was never a cuddly lap cat but since Muis died, she's gotten a lot more friendly and cuddly with us. Perhaps that's just her way of coping though. She's almost 15 so who knows how long she'll last.

I once had a cat like the one your story just now. Sjimmi, a calico. Always followed me around and slept on my bed every night. She was a family cat, but more felt like my cat. When she was 3 we moved to a new house a few blocks away. For the first few weeks we had her on her leash so she could safely explore the area before we let her go outside on her own.
At one point I was visiting my then-best friend who had been my neighbor at the old house. We sat outside on the porch when all of a sudden Sjimmi came running around the corner - somehow she had found her way to our old house. I called my step dad and he came to pick her up, brought her home. That night she escaped. That was the first night in 3 years I slept without her next to my pillow. The next morning she still hadn't come back.

I went to school, had a fun day, and came home again, only to be told by my mother that Sjimmi had been run over by a car. We live only a few houses away from a high school next to a busy road, and a few students there had found Sjimmi in the bushes next to the building. Fortunately she had a collar with our address on it, but I wasn't allowed to see her. She had already been taken to the vet to be 'disposed' of. I didn't even get the bury her.
We bury all our pets now, but even now, 14 years later I still wish I could have given Sjimmi a proper burial, I had never gotten the chance to say goodbye to her. That was pretty painful. I was 12 at the time.

I'm sorry to hear about your cat. As a cat lover who hasn't had a cat in years(hard to replace him..) And I know very much how it feels to lose one.

Me and mom are sorta in a similar situation with one of our rabbits. One of his well.. lets just one didnt drop when he matured and developed on the inside, so its pretty much in his bowel. We didn't know until we took him to the vet. He stopped eating and his hair was falling out. In addition to having a serious dental problem(rabbits teeth NEVER stop growing, so they need stuff to chew on, but some have teeth that grow too fast for them to "saw" down naturally). He's a Dwarf rabbit, and as such is prone to health issues. The bill is 252 dollars and I refused to pay it but then I changed my mind, and we're gonna go and try and save him with surgery.

Wingus, I just saw this thread. I hope you are doing okay. A pet just manages to get in your heart and it is terribly hard to let them go. It sounds like your cat was in pain and failing. There was very little you could do. Comfort yourself that you gave the cat a good and safe life.

I went through a similar situation with the cat I had prior to my current bundle of claws and maladjustment. It's been well over a decade since that cat passed away and I still tear up when I talk about it to poeple. She was a bundle of malice to the bitter end and took a swipe at the vet in extremis. She was all kinds of awesome, that cat.

Tallest, sorry about yours too.

It's so tough losing a pet. It really is. My fluffy cat is getting kind of old and she's by far the most cuddly cat I've ever seen . She always climbs up on my lap to try to steal some loving.. It'll be tough to see her go.

Sorry to hear about your cat, wingus. Good luck pal.

Ditto

Sorry you have to go through this.. I just lost my best friend to the same thing and kind of wish I didn't open this thread now...

Sad.


Putting down a Dog is sadder IMO

I think they're both equally disappointing and sad. Pets are pets whether a cat or dog and they both mean a lot to people. If you had a pet long enough and one whom you saw every single day it's almost like losing a human when they die.

Low key, I was more sad when my dog died than when my cousin died.