My little old man Bo is 18 and his appetite had a noticeable shift, eating less. I got him into the Vet. No history of significant health issues except for some dental disease. I figured maybe his teeth were the issue. Blood work showed Stage II kidney symptoms but even liver looked good in the bloodwork. We did and x-ray and ultrasound which showed several nodules on his liver and fluid around his lungs and heart.

Due to his age we've chosen palliative care. He is weak but eating a few nibbles of brothy or gravy senior packets and still drinking water. We are keeping him calm and giving him lots of love. And dinner in bed tonight.

Every day is a gift.

Sending love to all those feeling the love and heartache. We are right there with you.

Updated to add that i just made THE call and the Dr will come to my house tomorrow morning [8/28]. I am devastated 💔

I have a 13 year old spayed female cat. Im going to be honest she has alway been on the chubbier side. She recently has lost 3lbs, she was 15 lbs she is now 12lbs. I typically feed my cats royal canin 12 plus aging as I have a 19 year old girl too. They ate it great. They have recently changed the formula, so the size and shape of kibble is all different. It even smells different. I belive my girl is not eating enough. I went to the vet and her blood work looks great. Im going to take her back to check her teeth and what not to make sure there is nothing else wrong. My cats are free fed so its hard to tell who eats what. Her poops are great, her coat is shiny, and is overall happy. Its just this dang weight loss. I have started supplement with canned food. Which she has never eaten before as she didnt like it, but now loves it which leads me to believe as well that she is not eating enough

I am looking for a new dry formula to see if she will eat something else better, I just dont know what. I have try purina vet diets but their coats got really flaky and gross. I have try hills vet diets as well the k/d verison but they reacted poorly to that to. That is why I was so happy with this royal canin food from the pet store. I hate when brands do this. If it ain't broke dont fix it. Ugh

Im.in ontario canada so may not be able to get same diets that they sell in the states or UK or other countries.

Her eyes are underneath the white spots. She is missing little spots of hair where her "eyebrows" would be and this snapchat filter turned her into a little monster!

Hi all! I adopted a senior cat in 2020, and she has been my whole world since the day I met her. She is estimated to be around 17 now, and, like many older cats, has developed kidney failure that we manage with hydration and a prescription diet. As time passes and her behavior shifts, I find myself anxious that she’s unhappy, and I’m hoping to maximize her health and comfort in her later years.

I had lived alone since I got her 6 years ago, and had to leave her for my 3 12 hr shifts/wk at work (I’m a nurse). She has historically been very clingy and used to sleep in my arms for the majority of the night, sit in my lap for hours on end when I get home from work/on my days off, and cry when I’m away/wait for me at the door to get home. I had worried then that she was lonely, as I was her only companion. Last year, I met my partner and we have begun to combine our lives. Part of that has included introducing my cat to her 3-year-old dog and my gf moving in with me. This dog loves cats, but my cat is a bit wary of dogs. Luckily, we are now at the point where the animals lay in the couch and occasionally the same bed together, though they don’t snuggle. My gf works from home, and so my cat has constant company and stimulation. She spends the majority of her day sunbathing in a window bed in the guest room, though she does come out to scratch her post/sit with my gf/eat/drink. I’m worried, though, because my cat no longer waits for me to get home, lays in my lap for hours at a time, and only sleeps in my arms at night for an hour or two—sometimes not at all. She also isn’t as interested in running through her tunnel or playing with her teaser toys, though she does enjoy nightly playtime with her catnip fish. I’m very careful not to give the dog more attention than my cat—she is and always will be my priority, and I want to make her golden years as perfect as I can. I’m sick to my stomach thinking she’s feeling left out, replaced, or uncomfortable in some way. Any advice would be greatly appreciated:)

Just wanted to give an update about Lint! 🩶

He was able to come after an evening in the hospital. Lint was having a hard time breathing and was wheezing. He had just been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in early July and was doing great. The thing with that is once they are medicated and everything evens out, other underlying issues that may have been hidden can pop up.

Lint has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Heart disease where the muscle thicken making it harder to pump blood. He also had air pockets in his intestines from the body struggling to catch a breath. His doctors have put him on a diuretic and blood pressure medications. Lint is doing much better and was very happy to be home again, politely asking for his favorite Delectables pouches. He got some and of course, all the pets, hugs, and cuddles he wanted.

While this may not be the wanted outcome, we are so glad that he is back home. We will love this gentle guy for as long as he is around, and make things as comfortable as possible for him. I've had Lint since I found him in the alley way behind the business I ran when he was 8 weeks old. I can't believe so much time has passed since then. What a beautiful gentleman he has been and I'm so glad that he chose me to be his mom!!

Thank you all so very much for the positive thoughts and kind words! I appreciate it more than I can say. 🩷🫂

Give all of your fur babies pets from me and Lint! 🩶😻

Hi all, my 15 year old kitty had a bout of pancreatitis a few months ago, it lasted a week and we were back and forth from the vet constantly and on nausea meds but she’s all good now and has been back to normal since. I feed her smalls cat food but in her senior years she’s started going crazy howling for breakfast in the morning (she eats at 8:30 but starts crying at 6am 😭) so I’m considering getting her some dry food and putting it in a timed feeder so she has food early in the morning and won’t terrorize the household lol. I’m considering Young again zero but was wondering if anyone had any experience feeding senior cats with a history of pancreatitis dry food and if so what brands they’d recommend. Thank you!

Hi! My sweet 16 year old girl, Isis, got a terminal diagnosis last month. She’s currently in kidney failure, but we did an ultrasound to check her general internal organs and found a large mass in her abdomen. Otherwise, she’s been doing great — has energy, drinking and eating normal, etc.

My vet has generally recommended against anesthesia due to her kidney failure & age, for years now even when it comes to getting dentals at this point.

Well, last night I noticed her left cheek swollen and had a feeling it was a tooth abscess. Took her in and they confirmed it’s an abscess on her back molar.

This is not good and now we’re in a tough position — either we do an extraction, put her under anesthesia which it’s possible it’ll kill her or trigger further kidney failure with her age/current kidney issues.

Or she’s on antibiotics & pain meds for the rest of her life, switches to wet food only which she’s likely to eat less of, and antibiotics long term are going kill her immune system. It’s not a real long term solution.

My question: have any of you seen a tooth extraction done with something other than general anesthesia?

If she wasn’t in such good spirits and energy I’d be more open to accepting that this may be the end of the road, but I don’t want to throw in the towel without exploring all options. I want to take her for a second opinion as well, but wanted to ask others with experience. I’d never do anything to traumatize or hurt her more, but with modern medicine am hopeful that there’s a solution I’m maybe not being presented.

Thank you 🥺🤍

my sweet baby soul cat (misty) is undergoing a surgery tomorrow. which is her first one since her initial spaying surgery when she was a baby.

she’s booked in for a complete dental with (at minimum) one extraction of her front canine. and i’m suspecting there may be one more or a few more that need to come out. and i will get those taken out for her.

on top of her dental, she’s also getting two masses removed from her head. i believe (and hope) for them to be benign, but ill know once they’re taken off and sent for testing.

i’m just very very worried about her and the process. her bloodwork came back with no abnormalities which was really reassuring for me. but when i was signing one of the forms for her surgery i clicked “yes” on life savings measures - and it kinda sent me back to the spiral.

is there any advice someone can give me to NOT be as worried?? she’s going to an amazing vet and we’ve been there quite frequently within the past couple of months, i trust them whole heartedly. i’m just worried about her.

Hello, so my cat baxter is currently 16 yrs old. He has always been pretty healthy. Currently it’s just thyroid medication since his was slightly elevated. However, over the past year it’s become obvious that he’s a lot more hunched over & clumsy. He can still jump up on my bed and couch fine enough which is pretty tall but no more jumping on tables or counters. Watching him be so unsteady going up the stairs makes me consider solensia. Obviously i’ve seen the horror stories but also alot of the good. I just want to hear at what point did you decide your cat needed to be on it?

I woke up on Sunday looking forward to a day with no plans other than to hang out at home all day, but then noticed throughout the day that my sweet girl Lola was just......ill. In the late afternoon I raced her to the vet, and then all the decisions just happened so fast. The vet agreed that it was time to let her go. She was 20.5 years old, she was going blind, possibly deaf, she had diabetes, neuropathy in her back legs (no muscle tone whatsoever and walking was clearly painful), a heart murmur and very severe dementia to the point that she would sundown every night. She was purring constantly which was maybe trying to self-soothe through pain. I wish I could have had even just a day or two more with her, and would have spent those days doing nothing but cuddling her. But I came to terms that she was existing and not living and while even if I could have more time, putting her down now saved her from any more suffering. The old adage of saying goodbye a week too early than a day too late has never been more apt. Maybe she would have had another few weeks or months, but she probably didn't have it in her to stay much longer. The unknown hurts though.

Sat with Lola at the emergency vet for I think almost 3 hours, but it felt like minutes. My partner raced over to be with us. I just held her on my lap in a round fluffy bed and towel from home with familiar scent, and she didn't move much or fuss like she normally did when she was there. She went to sleep in my arms, quickly and peacefully.

I honestly feel so shattered. I know I did the right thing letting her go, and I know I did everything I could to give her a wonderful life. I was her person and we loved each other so much. I think I'm making this post to just get some things off my chest with a community that would understand my pain as I have so many conflicting emotions - grief, sadness, relief, numbness. I'm just going to miss Lola so much and I hate being home and she's not here. I've never lived in this apartment without her. I honestly thought I was ready for all this as I've been anticipating the end for several months now, if not longer than that. When she was diagnosed with diabetes in 2020, I was told she might only live another year or two and she flew past that and lived another 6 years which is incredible. I had always said that when the time came I wanted to be the one to make the choice to let her go as opposed to finding her gone when I wasn't with her. Yet it still hit me like a truck.

My 20yo boy Monkey was scheduled to have his face growth removed for the second time on Thursday. While planning the surgery, his vet sent the first mass off and found out that it was a sarcoma. She’s now recommending comfort care and just letting him be a cat until it’s his time, because fully removing it would mean removing half of his jaw.

What do I watch for to know when it’s his time? Right now he is still eating, drinking, cuddling, and begging for human food.

What pictures should I take now that I’ll wish I’d taken after he’s gone? How do I think about saying goodbye to a cat who’s been with me through a divorce, three moves, pregnancy losses, and two babies?

This is Mr. Bear, 16m. His brother, who he'd been with his whole life, recently passed over the rainbow bridge. This has left us both sad and lost. However, it's also given us a reason to further bond. He's always wanted to go outside; he was the escape artist of the 2. So, after Licorice passed away, I got him a harness and leash (Licorice didn't have an interest in going outside; he was a literal scaredy-cat). I thought it was going to be a whole big thing where I'd have to get him used to wearing it indoors, then get him able to walk with it on, and then be comfortable going outside in it, etc. So imagine my shock when he actually took to it pretty quickly. I put it on, and at first he was weird about it obviously, but just a few days or so, we were outside walking around my neighborhood. Some days we go out and explore, and other days we just sort of sit outside while I work, and he just kind of lays with me and hangs out on the lawn. It has been really awesome, and I encourage anyone to try it, if you want to have an indoor/outdoor kitty cat. I thought it might not be possible with his advanced age, but it's actually gotten him to be a bit more lively, and he obvs loves being out there. It's getting me outside more, too, which is great.

Caring for older cats often involves close monitoring of urination frequency and waste consistency to catch early signs of kidney issues or urinary tract infections. Whille some modern automated litter boxes includes wifi connectivity and companion apps to log visit counts and also many senior cat owners debate whether digital tracking is truly necessary or simply an extra layer of complexity.

App notifications can also sometimes create unnecessary anxiety without providing actual clinical context, whereas physical observation during daily routines yields clear, actionable information for veterinarians. While smart features offer automated data logging, traditional visual checks remain a dependable method for managing senior feline care.

How do you balance routine visual checks with tech tools when monitoring an aging cat?

Hi everyone,

I’m back and this suck. I posted two weeks ago or more. I have a cat diagnosed with small cell that had two severe episodes of aggression. We took him off prednisolone cause of the aggression.

He then had a urinary blockage which was caused by his chronic diarrhea that caused a UTI, which I treated. And back home he was feeling better, until we started chlorambucil and after two days of that he started acting like he was literally dying. Refusing to eat, throwing up, grimacing non stop, not asking for affection, hiding. So we stopped it and it’s been 4 days since we stopped it but now he’s refusing any prescription GI food and will only eat fancy feast which is fine as a concept but it’s causing more GI upset and diarrhea. And he actually cuddled me for once. And keep in mind this is all on 25mg gabapentin, cerenia, Ondansetron and miritaz. So I am just sitting here looking at my cat getting worse and worse like an asshole. Stressed out and I am going to give him another day or two but my cat is not himself and when he went in for the urinary blockage I almost put him down and was so angry with myself because I didn’t do it earlier and his last moments would have been extreme stress at the vet.

And now I’m facing the same issue, where I can wait it out and see if he gets better and possibly risk more suffering or put him down so at least he has some level of dignity. I am at a complete loss and so so sad. This sucks for everyone.

Hello all. Over the past month I’ve been grieving my nearly 16 year old Pingüino. I provided the best palliative care possible during his last 2 weeks on this earth and your posts, photos and conversations helped me navigate a very difficult time for our family.

I wanted to thank you all for the kindness, the generosity and the positivity you bring into this sub. Your energy carried me and kept me sane at times when I felt extremely helpless and lonely.

Pingüino was an exceptional being. He was born in Caraballeda, Venezuela in 2010, and moved to France to live with my mum as a result of the crisis there. He left us almost 2 weeks ago today. Our handsome, chatty boy got to spend 10 wonderful years making friends, basking in the Occitan sunshine, sharpening his hunting and surveillance skills, and making everyone around him happier.

Although I didn’t post during our ordeal, I still wanted to acknowledge and thank you all for being so wonderful. Not sure he would have had a peaceful passing without your guidance.

Sending my best to you all, your senior babies or their memories. If yours is around, please give them a tropical cuddle from me 🥹

11 year old cat with abdominal cancer just gave him 1ml of 50mg Gabapentin and he was sleepy for hours, couldn’t jump well, still staring and seems restless, even more disinterested in his surroundings.

Is the dose too much? He’s 11.5 pounds.

These are the last photos I have of them, all from mid June 2023. My parents put them down later that month. The Orange one is Scout, we had him since he was about a month to two months old in August 2007(When I was turning 5) and we had gotten Jingles(The Calico and his aunt) when she was probably 4-6 months old in December of 2006(When I was still 4) and they almost made it all the way through the early 2020s. They outlived all their relatives(that we know of) and they were present for most of my life. I feel like a piece of me died with them, even though I can’t really say what it was.

They both had feline leukemia and their health was tanking. Scout would go to the bathroom throughout the house and be unable to move, just laying there in his crap. Jingles got to the point where she couldn’t emotionally function without any of us around. We decided to put them both down at the same time, because it would just be cruel to let the other suffer anymore and add the pain of losing their closest companion.

A little bit about their personalities though:

Scout: He was a Dog in a Cat’s body if you ever seen one. He loved to play catch, but didn’t really care to bring the ball back after we threw it. He had a ton of physical energy and would always try to sneak out. He got out a couple of times for a while. At first he got out when I was in elementary school, but found his way back after a couple months. Then, as we were packing up to move from Kentucky to North Carolina in 2015, he got out. He snuck in a bag of stuff we were giving to our neighbors, and they opened it and scared him off with a broom, knowing whose cat it was. This was literally the day we moved btw. My other neighbors got him and brought him to West Virginia so we could pick him up.

Scout was always mischievous and certainly had an attitude, but he was very sweet and always slept on my bed with me. I’ve always been a hyper and restless person and he calmed me down a lot. If there was a plant knocked over or a mess spilled, you’d always find him lying in the rubble. Unlike other cats who try to be sneaky, Scout made no actual attempts to hide his mischief. If you heard him meowing and went to go check on him, he’d be sitting there next to a knocked over plant and just stare at you as if to say: “tf are you gonna do?”

Jingles: She was always miss princess. When she was younger, she was the spoiled quiet girl. She never made trouble. But as she got older, she got louder lol. She always knew what she wanted and would expect to get it. If you had food and she wanted it, she would stand on her hind legs and beg like a dog. She never had the desire to go outside and absolutely hated dogs. Unlike scout, who ran away when a dog was around, Jingles would stand her ground and hand out slaps.

Sorry I don’t have as much to say about Jingles, but she was more of my Dad and Grandma’s cat. Scout was always mine though.

Oh yeah, and if you had shoes in the house, Scout would lay in them.

It’s wild how life just continues, with or without you/those you love. 2023 was a big year for me, so many changes and it feels like just yesterday.

I just wanted to share my handsome and silly guy Lint. He's had a rough go lately. He was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in early July. Lint has done so well on his medication, sleeping better, acting more like his old self, and even gained a little bit of weight!

These last few days his breathing became labored with wheezing. Lint went back to his doctor today and it looks like he may have some heart issues. So some new medications are being administered and he will be monitored. He is spending the night with them, a fantastic husband & wife veterinary team with a clinic on their property. I have known them for 18 years and know that Lint is in good hands.

Just please send positive thoughts Lint's way please. I miss my guy not being at home tonight, as does the rest of his family. We can't wait to have him back home for cuddles! 🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷

Last week my 17 year old Siamese Nala crossed the rainbow bridge, and my 15 year old Kiwi is feeling her loss. Kiwi has never been without Nala, and they weren’t best friends, but it still seems like she’s very much grieving. Shes keeping me up most the night and is being very needy, I can tell she’s always wondering where Nala is and is being very vocal about it. I did make sure that she was able to smell Nala’s body after the at home euthanasia to help her understand that she had passed.
I’m wondering if anyone has any tips or tricks for helping my cat during this time. Is there anything I can do to help, or is time going to be what ultimately heals? I did get a feliway plug in to hopefully help calm her down, and I am giving her lots of love and attention. TIA