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Caring for a Dying Stray Cat

joko104 said:
Are you one of the people who voted for the extinction of the human race by an asteroid rather than seeing another term for President Trump - the suffering being just too great? :lol:

There's a lot of old people particularly for which it is very painful to walk or who otherwise have to deal with pain every day. That isn't justification to put then down. Putting a pet down is the last resort, not the first. Young people often say they would rather die that suffer old age ailments. I have no doubt that is not their opinion when they become old.

I have put down probably a dozen pets and a couple animals who were severe road hits. For pets, it is the last resort when there is no quality of life left and the end is certain. I look at this with a simple question: "if it were me, what would I want?" There is a point I would want my life to end. But I've experienced a great deal of physical pain my life history and never did I see death as a solution. Your pet's fate is in your hands. Ending it's life is never it's choice. So if in doubt, don't. But if ethics requires it - or if that is the true act of love, do it.
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The cat has a baseball sized tumor on its back. It's in great pain.
 
ecofarm said:
The cat has a baseball sized tumor on its back. It's in great pain.
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That could be very painful, or not at all. It depends upon the type of tumor and whether it has attached to nerves. He did say it has difficulty walking, so that indicates it is likely in great pain - for which he is trying to decide the ethical thing to do. It is a decision, not "uh oh, the cat has a health issue so quick we need to kill it."

Do you think that should be the military's practice to a wounded or injured soldier screaming in pain? This is not a black and white question to people who emotionally attach to animals in their life. Killing it isn't all that easy a decision to make. For some, particularly elderly, it is almost like killing their own child and may be the only true companion and friend they have in the whole world, the only living being still in their life - everyone has died or moved away. There are elderly widows here who will take in her 16 year old lap dog and will tell the vet "no matter how much it costs..." even if into the tens of thousands of dollars ... just to buy a few more months and with little chance even at that.

Killing doesn't come easy to some people. Not wanting - or able - to kill an animal doesn't make a person evil.
 
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joko104 said:
That could be very painful, or not at all. It depends upon the type of tumor and whether it has attached to nerves. He did say it has difficulty walking, so that indicates it is likely in great pain - for which he is trying to decide the ethical thing to do. It is a decision, not "uh oh, the cat has a health issue so quick we need to kill it."

Do you think that should be the military's practice to a wounded or injured soldier screaming in pain? This is not a black and white question to people who emotionally attach to animals in their life. Killing it isn't all that easy a decision to make. For some, particularly elderly, it is almost like killing their own child and may be the only true companion and friend they have in the whole world, the only living being still in their life - everyone has died or moved away. There are elderly widows here who will take in her 16 year old lap dog and will tell the vet "no matter how much it costs..." even if into the tens of thousands of dollars ... just to buy a few more months and with little chance even at that.

Killing doesn't come easy to some people. Not wanting - or able - to kill an animal doesn't make a person evil.
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I know what he's looking at. I had to help a friend put a cat down for the same thing a few months ago. The vet was very clear about the pain a cat endures under such circumstances and said there was absolutely no option but to stop the pain asap. He also noted that cats don't make noise resulting from such pain.

Same thing. A baseball sized tumor.

He needs to take care of it as soon as possible.
 
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ecofarm said:
I know what he's looking at. I had to help a friend put a cat down for the same thing a few months ago. The vet was very clear about the pain a cat endures under such circumstances and said there was absolutely no option but to stop the pain asap. He also noted that cats don't make noise resulting from such pain.

Same thing. A baseball sized tumor.

He needs to take care of it as soon as possible.
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I agree with that.
 
Good evening everyone,

I want to thank everyone here for their input, advice, and kind wishes.

Yesterday my wife and I came to the decision that Van Gogh was suffering too much. The poor cat could not leave the kitty bed to eat, drink or pass waste. She would have simply ended up slowly dying from starvation or dehydration in that bed. So my wife and I took Van Gogh to the veterinarian today after work. She was so weak and frail that she offered no resistance besides some brief hissing when we put her in her carrier.

At the vet's we found out that that Van Gogh was a lady all along. We paid to have her put to sleep, and the veterinarians were kind enough to let the two of us be in with her as she passed away peacefully. We also paid for her cremation and asked for the ashes so we could keep her in remembrance. But the backyard won't be the same without her there spying on us from the bushes and sunning herself on the grass. It was not the way I would have wanted to spend Valentine's Day, but there was no way my wife and I could have enjoyed today knowing that a cat whose presence we had genuinely grown to love was in such terrible pain. Now she is at peace.

Van Gogh.jpg

Goodbye, old girl.
 
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Felis Leo said:
Hello everyone,

I just wanted your thoughts on this matter. We have a stray feral cat who has been coming to our backyard for years. We have named him Van Gogh on account of his missing an ear and his extreme skittishness. Our backyard appears to be as close to a home for him as anything, since we do not let our dog into the backyard (she really hates being left out there) and we leave food for Van Gogh and the other neighborhood cats.

Van Gogh has been a fixture of our daily lives for years, coming to our backyard every day to sun himself, eat food, and relax on the grass. We enjoy his presence from afar. He is, after all, a stray feral and does not trust humans and will hiss and run when we go to him. He will eat the food we leave him, and sleep in the kitty bed outside that we have made for him, but will not allow himself to pet or even approached. As I said, he will run and jump the backyard fence whenever we go to him.

Until recently, that is. We started noticing a few months ago that he had a weird growth on his back, a lump of some sort. At first my wife and I thought he may have been injured in a fight and had developed an abscess, or perhaps that it was scoliosis. But it just kept growing and growing over these past several months. Now it looks he is hiding a small football under his fur just below his shoulders. Not only is it unsightly, far worse, it has compressed his spine so he is no longer able to run or climb the fence. His back legs are largely useless. He still hobbles, and comes to eat the food and water we leave out for him, but it is clear his condition is getting worse. He will never be able to leave our backyard. He is dying.

I am torn on what to do. Van Gogh is clearly suffering, and if he were one of my house cats in the same shape, I would have taken the poor guy to the Vet be put down without hesitation. But he is terrified of humans, and while I would be able to easily catch him and constrain him to take him to the vet, he would find no comfort with us. I think he would simply be in a state of agonized terror for the duration of his containment, surrounded by creatures he fears and in an environment he does not comprehend until his final moments, as opposed to dying slowly and painfully in the comfort of our backyard which he has always considered his home.

I want to hear what you guys would do in a similar situation? Let cruel nature take its course but give him the space, food and water that he needs in a place where he feels safe until he can no longer sustain himself? Or should my wife and I intervene, putting him through momentary terror but letting the pain end?
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I would go someplace and put it to an end, the time is now, you owe this creature this even if you have to pay the freight.

This is what compassion looks like.
 
Felis Leo said:
Hello everyone,

I just wanted your thoughts on this matter. We have a stray feral cat who has been coming to our backyard for years. We have named him Van Gogh on account of his missing an ear and his extreme skittishness. Our backyard appears to be as close to a home for him as anything, since we do not let our dog into the backyard (she really hates being left out there) and we leave food for Van Gogh and the other neighborhood cats.

Van Gogh has been a fixture of our daily lives for years, coming to our backyard every day to sun himself, eat food, and relax on the grass. We enjoy his presence from afar. He is, after all, a stray feral and does not trust humans and will hiss and run when we go to him. He will eat the food we leave him, and sleep in the kitty bed outside that we have made for him, but will not allow himself to pet or even approached. As I said, he will run and jump the backyard fence whenever we go to him.

Until recently, that is. We started noticing a few months ago that he had a weird growth on his back, a lump of some sort. At first my wife and I thought he may have been injured in a fight and had developed an abscess, or perhaps that it was scoliosis. But it just kept growing and growing over these past several months. Now it looks he is hiding a small football under his fur just below his shoulders. Not only is it unsightly, far worse, it has compressed his spine so he is no longer able to run or climb the fence. His back legs are largely useless. He still hobbles, and comes to eat the food and water we leave out for him, but it is clear his condition is getting worse. He will never be able to leave our backyard. He is dying.

I am torn on what to do. Van Gogh is clearly suffering, and if he were one of my house cats in the same shape, I would have taken the poor guy to the Vet be put down without hesitation. But he is terrified of humans, and while I would be able to easily catch him and constrain him to take him to the vet, he would find no comfort with us. I think he would simply be in a state of agonized terror for the duration of his containment, surrounded by creatures he fears and in an environment he does not comprehend until his final moments, as opposed to dying slowly and painfully in the comfort of our backyard which he has always considered his home.

I want to hear what you guys would do in a similar situation? Let cruel nature take its course but give him the space, food and water that he needs in a place where he feels safe until he can no longer sustain himself? Or should my wife and I intervene, putting him through momentary terror but letting the pain end?
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deleted.


I just read the result.
 
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There is a chance the tumor is benign; unfortunately, only a path report can tell for sure.....if you want to take the time to live trap the cat and get it to a vet, you can either have the cat put to sleep quickly, or, have the tumor removed and add a few years to his life and perhaps get him fixed, dewormed, and released.

Lady Bum and I tend to take strays to a shelter for cleaning, fixing, and eventual adoption....or, for the truly feral ones, some go to a long term feral cat shelter ( we donate to shelters quite a bit).

You have to decide how much time and effort you want to put into the stray.

*edit

Just read what you did....well done, you saved her from a lingering and miserable death.
 
Felis Leo said:
I want to hear what you guys would do in a similar situation? Let cruel nature take its course but give him the space, food and water that he needs in a place where he feels safe until he can no longer sustain himself? Or should my wife and I intervene, putting him through momentary terror but letting the pain end?
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Call LA County Animal Control so that they can trap him and euthanize him.
We used to have a couple of feral strays we cared for as well but when one of them dragged herself to our driveway after being hit by a car, that is what we had to do.

The other one just stopped showing up so I am guessing a coyote must have made a meal of him, unfortunately.
PS: Just read the update, good man, Felis.
I know how hard it is to do that.
 
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Felis Leo said:
...Goodbye, old girl.
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Sorry to about your backyard friend. I know you can get attached even at a distance. There must be hundreds of millions of strays. My wife fed a stray for many months before she came inside.

About six months ago, we had our cat euthanized. Technically she was our cat, but in reality she was my cat. She was 22 years old. Before I'm accused to of cruelty, we were well aware of how unique she was and worked closely with our vet on her condition. It was amazing how active she was until the end. Near the end her arthritis kept her from cleaning herself and everyone decided it was time.

I wasn't macho enough to shoot my own cat in the head with a 22, besides we live downtown and it wasn't very convenient. So we had someone come to our apartment and inject her while I held her down. That damn cat was by my side or on my lap for a full third of my life (and I'm old), she is still sorely missed...
 
Felis Leo said:
Good evening everyone,

I want to thank everyone here for their input, advice, and kind wishes.

Yesterday my wife and I came to the decision that Van Gogh was suffering too much. The poor cat could not leave the kitty bed to eat, drink or pass waste. She would have simply ended up slowly dying from starvation or dehydration in that bed. So my wife and I took Van Gogh to the veterinarian today after work. She was so weak and frail that she offered no resistance besides some brief hissing when we put her in her carrier.

At the vet's we found out that that Van Gogh was a lady all along. We paid to have her put to sleep, and the veterinarians were kind enough to let the two of us be in with her as she passed away peacefully. We also paid for her cremation and asked for the ashes so we could keep her in remembrance. But the backyard won't be the same without her there spying on us from the bushes and sunning herself on the grass. It was not the way I would have wanted to spend Valentine's Day, but there was no way my wife and I could have enjoyed today knowing that a cat whose presence we had genuinely grown to love was in such terrible pain. Now she is at peace.

View attachment 67273839

Goodbye, old girl.
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Thank you for caring and doing the right thing. The world needs more people like you and your wife.
 
Felis Leo said:
Good evening everyone,

I want to thank everyone here for their input, advice, and kind wishes.

Yesterday my wife and I came to the decision that Van Gogh was suffering too much. The poor cat could not leave the kitty bed to eat, drink or pass waste. She would have simply ended up slowly dying from starvation or dehydration in that bed. So my wife and I took Van Gogh to the veterinarian today after work. She was so weak and frail that she offered no resistance besides some brief hissing when we put her in her carrier.

At the vet's we found out that that Van Gogh was a lady all along. We paid to have her put to sleep, and the veterinarians were kind enough to let the two of us be in with her as she passed away peacefully. We also paid for her cremation and asked for the ashes so we could keep her in remembrance. But the backyard won't be the same without her there spying on us from the bushes and sunning herself on the grass. It was not the way I would have wanted to spend Valentine's Day, but there was no way my wife and I could have enjoyed today knowing that a cat whose presence we had genuinely grown to love was in such terrible pain. Now she is at peace.

View attachment 67273839

Goodbye, old girl.
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Yes. Hard decisions should never be entered into w/o thought. You did the right thing.
 
Animal shelter in India


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