Reply to How to rehome mature cat that either needs a new home or gets the needle?

Forum Index » Pets

Reply to "How to rehome mature cat that either needs a new home or gets the needle?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I have been in your situation twice, although neither time was our cat as old as your cat is. 13 is quite respectable for a cat!

Our first cat with this issue, a male tabby (apparently prone to bladder issues), had recurring cystitis that eventually led to a bladder rupture. His peeing outside the box issues were both physical and behavioral. We spent thousands of dollars on vet care (including behavioral vet care), tried every food and medicine available at the time, and had to replace furniture and other items that he peed on. It was crazy -- we had to close all bedroom doors and cover all the living room furniture with shower curtains every time we left the house as no room and nothing was safe. We discussed many times whether we could rehome him but realized that there is no rehoming an indoor-only cat with uncontrollable peeing problems. When his bladder ruptured, and we were looking at a $5000+ bill for two weeks of intensive inpatient care to get him through the crisis, with every chance of later recurrence, that was it. We euthanized him with much sadness but no regrets.

I will also point out that he had been the friendliest, most loving cat before his health issues caused him to undergo a massive personality change into a grumpy, growling kitty. He was not happy because he was not well. I was so sorry to lose him but there was no viable alternative.

Our second cat with this issue was so much harder because there was no apparent physical cause of his peeing problems. A move plus a cat terrorizing him from outside our new house (grrr, I freaking HATE people who let their cats outdoors -- so irresponsible on so many levels) caused him to start peeing outside the box to mark territory despite anti-anxiety meds, new litterboxes (in addition to the multiple litterboxes we already had), new blinds to hide his view (although probably not the smell or sound) of the outside cat, and every behavioral intervention that we and the vets could come up with. Nothing worked. It was driving my husband crazy although he is much more of the catlover than I am. No lie -- it was so hard to make the decision, and it was terrible on my kids, but the decision to euthanize our cat was the right one. It would have been morally wrong to try to rehome him by taking him to a shelter. I looked into cat sanctuaries but that would have been terrible for him because other cats stressed the hell out of him. He was an indoor-only cat and I never would have let him outside or sent him to live on a farm. Euthanasia was the right decision even though he was not old.

OP, I don't think your husband is an ass. People who haven't lived with it have no idea how horrible it is to have a cat peeing outside the box. Although I do think it would be reasonable to try an additional litterbox -- would a covered one work? If you scoop daily, and change the litter out regularly, it's not that smelly and not gross to look at. But if that really won't fly, and you are at peace with the decision, then I think it's OK to give your kitty a gentle death. You have given her a much better life than she might have had and 13 is a good age for a kitty.

Good luck, and ignore the haters.[/quote]

PP, would you mind sharing where you went to euthanize your cat given these circumstances?  I have the exact same situation, I actually could be the OP but am not.  I have been dealing with cats peeing outside the litter box for 16 years.  Our basement is completely ruined and unusable by our children or us really, but we do not want to fix it because the cat will just ruin it all over again.  It has been a rough road, people truly do not understand.  We even feel like we couldn't move if we wanted to because we cannot get our house in shape because of the cat.

I have a friend in a similar situation, and what he found was that at least some vets in DC refused to euthanize a cat that was otherwise healthy.  He had a terrible time in an already heartwrenching situation.  Wondering if you found an empathetic vet in the DC area.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics