Pics of your pet

http://imgur.com/a/FGCqu


The better half with the kids.

 

Lovely. But I thought you were being literal-clever there, and I was expecting baby goats!

No, I've never had a pet goat, although I have known people who did. Anybody here got a goat? (or two: one of my goat-owning friends told me that they crave companionship and hate to be kept alone)

 

If it counts for you ...it counts for me.

And I've known people who made friends with animals before eating them --- although I always found that a bit hard to, err, swallow.

 

If you have to take care of them for months or even years... well, it's inevitable.

 

I suppose so. Whilst I had a rural upbringing, it was still some distance from, say, the realities of farm life. But, if I was, say, rearing a few lambs for slaughter, I think I'd keep some distance. I think I prefer to eat things whose names I don't know!

 

My squirrels name is splinter

 

This was Jack. He was my friend for the past 12 years. He'd been sick for the past year and I knew that his time was almost up. And in the most unselfish way he snuck out of the house and went off into the woods to die. I guess that he knew that I couldn't take him to the vet to be put down. He left about five weeks ago. Life is not the same without him.

 

Sorry about Jack's passing @Ice-man.

 

Sorry for you loss. Really tough.

 

My condolences at the passing of your furry friend @Ice-man . No matter how prepared we think we are, we never really are. They mean so much to us.

 

What a sweet looking dog. Sorry for the loss of your companion. We lost one of our cats back in October and still miss him terribly. Our other cat, also quite old at 18,is currently at the vet being hospitalized for IV fluids. She is doing better but we are looking at 6-12 months more at the very best case, and likely much less. It will be very hard for us when she is gone.

 

My parents live on the outside of a fairly small town and most of their cats would do this when it was their time, very hard but easier than the vet option. Very sorry to hear about your loss.

 

Happy holidays everyone!

Not the best quality (phone shot), but wanted to share a picture of Daphne from Christmas 2015:

 

Some sad developments. Sienna was hospitalized back in December and given several days of IV fluids due to her worsening blood values and condition due to advanced CRF (kidney disease). When she came home she was doing incredibly well -- acting like a young cat again and her blood levels dramatically improved.

This morning we are not sure exactly what happened but she must have had a fall either trying to get off of or onto our bed, which is only 18" or so off the ground and a jump she has made tens of thousands of times in her life. We didn't see the fall but saw her hobbling at some point before leaving for the day . I immediately took her to the local animal hospital and she has a fractured femur. It is a simple fracture and the on-call vet thought that it could be repaired surgically, but the surgeon would have to weigh in on Monday. Sometimes in these cases, the leg cannot be saved and the choice is amputation or euthanasia.

I was able to reach my own vet (Sunday is his one day off) to ask him if putting her through such a surgery and recovery would be unfair to her given her advanced age (19) and other illness which is terminal and will eventually kill her (the CRF). He told me that the hospital has an excellent surgeon and that if they thought they could repair he did not think it would be cruel at all to offer her the surgery and hope for the best. He said if it were his cat and money was not an issue (it will be a very expensive surgery in part because I am in NYC and everything is a fortune here), he would do it. He is a pretty straight-shooter and not afraid to support a euthanasia decision, so this was meaningful to me.

So, we had to hospitalize her overnight to wait for the surgeon to examine her tomorrow morning and make a recommendation and for us to make a decision. But in a routine chest x-ray, the on-call vet saw a nodule on her lung that was not there back in December during her last x-ray. She cannot be sure but thinks it is likely lung cancer. She is not symptomatic of lung cancer, but the x-ray indicates she has likely developed it.

Now the issue is what we do. Even with lung cancer, I would not put her to sleep if she was still pain free (which she otherwise is). And the leg is treatable. But putting them together (and the CRF), can I justify surgery when she likely has an untreatable cancer. But putting her to sleep now is particularly painful since leg aside, she is otherwise "doing well" and "looks good" for a cat that is clearly not well due to underlying illnesses.

One option that we will discuss tomorrow is amputation for the leg. We know people who have done this with cats and cats can really do quite well. Rather that having a difficult surgery with long-recovery time (plating and pinning the bone together) where she might not ever fully recover before passing from other causes, she might be able to have better quality of life until one of the terminal illnesses make us say it is finally time.

After losing my last cat, I know there comes a time. But she really does not look like a cat that is ready to, or needs to go, quite yet. I would love to have a little more quality time at home until either of the terminal illnesses make it clear it is time to go. Very angry and upset that this accident is now possibly curtailing the little good time we have left.

Any thoughts or well wishes are greatly appreciated.

 

@Colgin , sorry to hear this. Seems like if Sienna is symptom free from her other illnesses, surgery is the way to go. Sounds like you trust your vet's judgement.

 

@Colgin I'm also very sorry to hear of your troubles. As an outsider and a huge pet lover, IMO it's time to say goodbye given the conditions you've described.

The last two pets we've had to have put to sleep have truly been hard on me. The last, my old dog Jack, lingers with me almost daily. At this point I'm not sure if I'll ever make the commitment to get another.

I wish you luck and peace with whatever you decide to do.

 

I agree with @Ice-man. I think its time to let go. We understand you're fresh off another loss, but this is a 19yo cat who lived a full life already. I bet there's a good chance the cat wouldn't survive the surgery. If the cat was 4 or 5, our answer would most likely be different. And that's not even considering the possible cancer.

I'd also advise getting another pet soon. I hear all the time how people won't make the "commitment" to another pet; good pet owners opting out of being a viable animal adopter. I bet if we could ask the animals, they would suggest it over and over again...

Good luck with your difficult times @Colgin

 

If kitty can have another year of happy life as a tripod, then that is an option since cats aren't good at counting.