Hi,

We have two cats, the oldest one is 15 and we have just been to the vets with her. She has always had a bit of a delicate stomach and would regularly vomit after eating (unlike other cat who has never to my knowledge done this).

About six months ago older cat seemed to be vomiting more frequently so we took her to the vet, he gave her a thorough exam and couldn't find anything wrong - he suggested we maybe change her diet and see if doing that helped with the vomiting.

Forward to a few weeks ago and the vomiting has become even more frequent and she has been constantly hungry and is obviously losing weight, we googled the symptoms and the most likely cause seemed to be a thyroid problem - hence the visit to the vet today.

We explained the symptoms to the vet and she agreed that thyroid was a possibilty but when she examined her she could feel a lump in her abdomen/intestines. The vet said in view of this that she thought that it was this that was causing the problems not a thyroid condition.

In summary she gave us some options 1) do nothing as long as cat is ok in herself(she is in no discomfort - she sleeps ok and is agile for her age) 2) give her a steroid injection to see if a (temporary)benefit can be gained or 3) operate as this is the only way to be sure what the lump is ( and obviuosly remove it)

Our thoughts are that given her age it would be unfair to subject her to intrusive treatments, and that the kindest thing would be to leave her until such time as things deteriorate and then go for euthanasia.

Just wondered what others would do.

PS. The vet offered no immediate treatment, and reading between the lines we got the impression that there was no realistic hope of any long term cure even if an operation was carried out.

Thanks

I'd go for the steroid, if you notice a massive difference then surgery might be an option, if it makes no difference, then perhaps just leave her be. You could always ask for thyroid bloods to be done anyway?

Go for the steroid route. My old cat was 14 when it was discovered that she had lymphoma. She was put on steroids & she had a happy 6 months battering the much younger cat . They let you know when they have had enough. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the replies.

Interesting that you both recommend the Steroid injection - will have a talk with the family and see what everyone thinks.

Just out of interest, do you recall the cost of the steroid injection please? Cat is insured but just wondered, also is it a one off injection or a course?

Thanks again

At her age the steroid would be my choice too.

Just to give an alternative perspective my "old" cat passed-away in October, (peacfully thankfully, sunbathing in the autumn sunshine) she was 25.

Never a days illness and only went to vet for the annual visit.

Where I'm coming from is that she(yours)could yet have a long life to live. Don't write her off just yet.

My cat was a very healthy 15 when I noticed some rather out of character vomiting. I took her to the vet who felt an abdominal 'lump',he suggested it may be cancer and she was immediately booked in for blood tests and for an ultrasound the following morning. The next day I was phoned by a diferent vet seeking permission to proceed with exploratory surgery - I needed to give consent immediately while she was still under sedation for the ultrasound. Everything was such a blur, I was so panicked that I never thought to even consider alternatives though they did ask if they could euthanase her under anaesthetic should they find cancer. I was completely appalled as I had only brought in my lively, apparently healthy cat for a check-up the previous day - I told them to do everything possible for her and under no circumstances to put her to sleep. She had been nowhere near dying prior to her vet visit, she had been playing in the garden and then had come in for a hearty meal before I put her in her travel carrier.

Post operation (they were unable to remove the cancer as it encroached on other tissues and organs) Tabitha was very poorly for a few days, then rallied before deteriorating again. She had one course of chemo but it made her sick and I had to make the decision to have her put to sleep less then 2 weeks after her original vet visit for a 'check-up'. The final bill was between £3 -£4K of which I had to pay £1000 - the insurance pays only 80% for older cats.

I am certain that Tabitha would have lived a lot longer if I had never brought her to the vet that day or if the vet had offered a steroid. It was actually the steroid she was given post op that allowed my Tabitha to have a decent enough last couple of weeks.

The potential problem with steroids is that they would be the wrong drug to give if the lump was actually an infected abscess. The vet (yet another one - Tabitha was treated by so many different vets during those 2 weeks) waited for the histology on the biopsy before administering the steroid so as not to cause complications or delayed healing if the problem was not actually cancer at all. But it was, in fact, a lymphoma.

Even if surgery and chemo had been 'successful' for Tabitha her prognosis would not have extended much beyond a year. Most of the research I did online inferred that she would be lucky to live for a further 6 months with treatment.

I really adored my cat so I did everything I could to keep her alive but I'm afraid her last 2 weeks were mainly spent at the vets and she must have been bewildered and uncomfortable. That experience will influence any future decisions regarding treatment for my 3 current cats, if similar circumstances arise, and my personal opinion and advice would be to avoid the course that I took - ie avoid surgery and chemo.

That's very sad MK and not unusual in cats/dogs and humans. Sometimes things are best left alone if the person or animal is managing fine. Steroids in a young animal are to be avoided IMO but they can be very beneficial in cases like this.

This is so sad. Are you OK?

My old girl was going to the vet regularly with weight loss and vomiting, had her thyroid checked twice and multiple blood tests to check her kidneys and liver function all of which were fine, the day before her 18th birthday the vet found a lump in her liver area and advised me to put her to sleep, we had her weight loss and vomiting under control by then so i refused, she had regular vit b12 injetions and steroids and i finally had to have her put to sleep 14 months later when her back legs went and she could no longer stand...she definitely didnt suffer in those months, she ate lots, purred lots and bullied my other cats lots!

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions.

As cat is not in any obvious distress or discomfort at the moment we have decided (in conjunction with vet's advice) to hold off doing anything at the moment - she actually seems to have improved noticeably since the consultation on Monday.

We have agreed however that as soon as she shows any signs of deterioration to try the Steroid injection treatment and see what benefit she gets from that. We have ruled out surgery as we don't believe it would be in her best interests to put her through that at her age.

Hopefully she will enjoy the rest of her time with us

That sounds sensible rubble, keep us updated we do care and like to help if we can even just listening sometimes helps I think.

Hey ,

One of my cats is coming up to 16 and she since a kitten has vomited with normally no reason behind it , we ran tests and changed foods and it would work for a few months then repeat vomiting . We also thought it was due her eating at a pace so fast she could get a speeding ticket lol
Within the last year they actually found she has early stage renal failure and due to her having arthritis and the kind of drugs she is on the drugs can speed up renal failure however they did give her special food that has actually stopped the vomiting .

I know your cat might not have this but it could be a test they can try out (blood) as the vet did say this is common in cats in the senior age

Hi,

Just thought I would update the situation on our cat.

We decided to try the steroid injections to see if they produced any improvement, she has had two doses and unfortunately there is no sign at all of her general condition getting any better.

She had a steroid injection on Saturday along with an anti vomiting injection which is supposed to act for 24 hours, but on Saturday night she was sick again and by yesterday evening she had been sick again three times even though she had hardly eaten. We were concerned in fact that she wouldn't last through Sunday night as she was just lying in the hall under the radiator, not really sleeping and not at all interested in food.

So we made the difficult decision to have her put to sleep today.

If we had seen any sign of improvement we would have persevered with the steroids but it was just cruel to keep her alive with no prospect of a long term cure and no short term relief from her illness.

It is never an easy thing to do of course but we are convinced that it is the kindest course of action.

Thanks for all your interest in this thread

Sorry for your loss. It sounds very similar to my experience when I lost my cat a few years ago, at nearly 17. When they are behaving in this manner, and all non-sinister reasons are ruled out, it's much kinder to put them to sleep. There comes a time when Vet visits, needles, etc, if prolonged, can be cruel.

I am so sorry for your loss. I had been reading your thread and was hoping for good news. Take care. Hugs to you, your family and your other wee cat.

Thank you for your kind thoughts, we brought her back home and she is now buried in the garden.

I'm very sorry for your loss - my heart goes out to you. Sometimes doing the right thing is also doing the hardest thing. Rest assured that you did what was best for your dear friend. I know that might be hard to accept right now, but hopefully you'll realise it in time.

My cat was lying underneath the radiator too. He'd been going downhill but I just didn't want to accept it. In the end I called the vet who came to my house and gave me the look and that was it. I'm still gutted.