Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing.
At a routine vet visit last week we learned that Willow has a not very good tooth. It’s at a stage where she’s probably aware of it but not yet in pain.
The vet told us the tooth may fall out or get re-absorbed, but it could become painful.
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The best thing would be to have the tooth removed but knowing from sad experience that cats are vulnerable to anaesthesia makes this a hard decision.
The first step was to get Willow’s blood tested for any abnormalities and the result came back clear but there is still the concern of her neurological abnormality.
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A simple tooth extraction should not require prolonged anaesthesia . I’ve been through this with lots of cats and only lost one.
So why is the decision so difficult?
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While I have no favourite cat and spend more time with some of the others that demand lap time, Willow came to me when she was barely full grown.
She made it clear that I was her person, right from the start. Like Yeti and Panther, she is not favourite but special.
There will come a day when we will part one way or another, but I couldn’t bear it to be because I made a bad decision.
Since all our recent losses I find myself emotionally reacting to any sign that one of the cats seems extra tired, or doesn’t want to eat, or throws up.
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Lily is my senior cat and while she seems healthy enough I sometimes think she looks tired and thin.
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Sophia is Grant’s senior cat. She’s about the same age as Lily. Since the infection she had last year, she has not recovered the weight she lost. Her blood test showed abnormalities with her thyroid and pancreas. Her kidney levels are slightly off.
If we treat the thyroid it could aggravate the kidney issue. So we’ve decided to do nothing, but to spend extra time with her.
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Panther had rodent ulcer but longterm use of prednisone damaged his kidneys and I lost him when he was only 13.
The disease caused him serious discomfort and I could not let him suffer. There was no other treatment but it was devastating to lose him soon.
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Blackie tests slightly positive for feline leukaemia which we learned after she moved in with us.
When stray cats are trapped for neuter/release, they are first tested for Felv and if it is positive they are put to sleep, as releasing an infected cat puts so many others at risk. So, since we knew Blackie had been spayed, we believed she was in the clear.
We keep the others vaccinated.
I’m not convinced she actually has Felv, but we watch for any signs.
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There are times when you wonder…
What if I hadn’t reacted when Lucy seemed a bit off?
What if we hadn’t given her gabapentin?
Would she still be alive?
It’s pointless to think this way but I can’t seem to stop myself.
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And lately the same thought comes constantly to torture me:
“Who will be next?”
When you become a multi-pet family, you have to accept more losses, but for us this is the final countdown.
After this, there will be no other cats.
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No one cannot predict the future.
As much as I hate the idea of 7 more losses, I really don’t want to predecease them, though Grant being much younger, they will hopefully still have him.
It’s silly I know, but I wouldn’t want Willow to think I had abandoned her. Or any of the others.
Separation anxiety.
Thank you, Carolyn, fot the beautiful but sad post! I love the portraits of your cats!
Joanna
I think cats, above all creatures, understand…
It is brave, but very difficult, to decide that there will be no more cats. We took the view that it would be unfair on any cat to have to rely on someone else when we were no longer around to care for them, and we could not bear the thought of having to take another decision to have a friend put to sleep. We made the right decision but the heartstrings are still given a tug every now and then!
Saying goodbye is the worst thing about having pets. All we can do is give them the best life we can and treat them with a lot of love and kindness. x
What can one say? That’s just the way it is (Berto’s favourite words if there’s not really anything to say about a story). I think it’s natural to look at your cats and wonder which one is next to interchange the temporal with the eternal. Meanwhile, one can only make an effort to enjoy every moment with them and create long-lasting memories that will never fade … which I know you do.
My one small (and the only) consolation over losing Ollie is that I didn’t die before him. Even though he would still have had Julie, he would have been waiting for me to come home his every waking moment.
The tooth extraction should be okay if they use the minimum level of anaesthetic. I doubt it will take more than a few seconds to pull it out.
Best wishes, Pete.