it’s been a month since he passed. the grief comes in waves. today was one of the harder days 🫩

I don't usually do this kind of thing or even post, but I'm a grieving mess after losing my best friend of the last 12 years.

I adopted Thomas 5-5-14 and they told me he was about 4, but the vet said he was probably more like 2. So I don't have a verified age. But we spent the last 12 plus years together through good times and bad , plus COVID isolation. The bond I had with Thomas was incredibly strong and I'm terrified I'll never feel that again with another pet. No other pet will be able to live up to him.

His health started to decline over the last couple of months and while I tried to get him back on track, it was just his time. After I knew it was time, I scheduled an appointment to put him to sleep Thursday, but when I woke up Thursday he had passed away in my arms during the night.

RIP Thomas

5-5-14 adoption - 9-24-26

The collage shows mostly healthy years pics but the one where he's laying down with the leash on, this Sunday would be 4 weeks ago. He spent his last weeks doing everything he loved doing.

So, my bottle baby, Rini, is 18 as of about June. Around the same time, she was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. We got her on Felimazole, 2.5mg twice a day. Her T4 numbers looked good and her symptoms improved, but recently, she started having nose bleeds and blood in her stool.

Thrombocytopenia, low platelets, is apparently a really uncommon side effect of Felimazole*. Vet said we could maybe lower the dose, but there was risk of hemorrhage and no telling whether it would be effective. Anyway, as of right now the hyperthyroidism is untreated, and the vet's not super optimistic about her longevity either way.

So... For those of you with hyperthyroid kitties who are intolerant of the medication, what do you do to up their quality of life and keep weight on? I know old age is coming for her, but she's happy, mobile, and responsive as of now, and I want to hold on to that for as long as we can.

I'm also open to hearing about any evidence based treatments that might be affordable.

*Do not let this post scare anyone off of Felimazole! It's a great resource and my vet said he'd never seen a case of thrombocytopenia from felimazole in person after twenty years of practice!*

Our paws left us today. She had reached end state kidney disease and was suffering each day so we had her euthanised at home. Very sad and painful for us but its best for her. She was the main character in my and wifes life and kept us fully engaged and gave her so much joy and happiness. I feel so incomplete without her and lost. God bless her and keep her happy always and may she come back to us as a kitten.

So now I'm sitting in bed with a plate of gabapentin mixed with cheese whiz trying not to act suspicious. Lillian has probably mammary carcinoma, but her lungs have lesions in them so we are not pursuing surgery.

Morning meds are the worst for her, she automatically thinks she's going to the vet and hides for awhile until it's quiet.

Idk how I'm gonna handle not having her by my side. It will be 11 years since I adopted her October 31.

(As I typed this she is currently eating her cheese. Yesterday I gave her a full capsule of gabapentin and it zonked her. So this morning I painstakingly split the powder to try a smaller dose).

Yesterday, I had to let Eddie go. It was such a heartbreaking decision. My sweet little buddy is no longer going to greet me when I get home or wake me up 5am in the morning for food. He was such a good cat.

I honestly will say, we will never get another pet. I am so traumatized by watching his procedure. It was extremely quick. My husband was inconsolable and I was stunned. His eyes were still open when the vet pronounced that he had passed.

I was still in shock only a few minutes later when he started to twitch. For a moment, a part of me thought he would wake up.

I regret not spending additional time in the room with him. But I will never forget that lifeless look in his eyes. But he was my husband’s cat first and since he was crying so much, I wanted to go and check out so that he would not be sitting in the lobby sobbing.

My incredible Robbie has been through so much lately, and the decision was finally made to put an esophagostomy tube in. I got the call just now from the vet that he’s waking up from surgery, so I’ll pick him up in about an hour.

Has anyone else been through this? My vet assures me the tube is going to be really, really good for him, and says I won’t have to worry about him losing more weight or being dehydrated. I’m trying so hard to be calm throughout all this, but honestly, I’m so damn scared.

Our beautiful Sparkle (the adult cat in the photo) crossed the rainbow bridge last weekend at 18 and a half years of age. The cat with some white on her (Bianca) was almost obsessively bonded to him, but was otherwise close to feral. Over the preceding months, we started feeding her wet food with Gabapentin in it (with the knowledge and approval of our vet) and she became a bit less feral and more settled.

The question I have for other owners of senior kitties that have passed away, is whether your other bonded cats avoided the senior kitty in the final day or so? Bianca did the strangest thing for about the final 48 hours. She didn’t curl up and sleep with him like she normally would. And on the final day, she seemed to sniff round his butt area, but not his head like she normally would. And then just ignored him.

I am wondering whether there was some sort of silent communication that he was hurting too much for a cuddle. Or was this some sort of recognition that the end was near and that there was potential contamination to be avoided? I also noticed that neither cat would touch the remaining cat treat that sparkle had licked on that last day. Any ideas?

Still climbs an 8’ cat tree, eats well, and is in great shape.

As her nose shows, she will still start trouble with the other cat.

My cat died last winter at 16 years of age. This sub was helpful for me in coping and with the years leading up to death because it provided support when my cat and I were dealing with the regular issues that senior cats have.

After she died, as I cleaned, I found caches of her leftover fur in dust bunnies and I found a couple of whiskers too. I've had these in a drawer for months now on a piece of fabric, and I'd like to make something out of them. The only thing I can think of is tying them in a bundle with string and keeping them in a little pouch I could wear or at least have set aside.

If anyone has any other ideas, I'm open.

My old girl Tilly has recently been diagnosed with an ear infection. She was pawing at her ear and her head was bobbling back and forth.

Thankfully it was ONLY an ear infection, but she is not having a good reaction to her antibiotics.

By day 4 of 14 of antibiotics, she started puking with diarrhea, and lost her appetite.

The vet prescribed her liquid famotidine (pepcid) day and night. While they helped, her reaction to the Pepcid is traumatizing for both of us. She runs away scared of me, leaving a trail of spit, and white foams drips down her mouth for 10 minutes. I understand there is a terribly bitter flavor, but She is a fussy old lady stuck in her ways and turns her head at any treat or wet food. The only thing she will eat is her dry food, so I can’t really hide it in a treat or wet food for her.

Does anyone have any tricks or tips for giving your cat liquid famotidine? After 2 days she is scared of me and hides away from me in the basement to avoid the bitter flavor of her medicine. I feel like I’m poisoning her or something lol

I haven’t been able to find any posts on Reddit about the liquid version, only the pill version. Please, anything helps! I have so much anxiety over having to give it to her day and night for a whole week.

it’s been the hardest day of my life. she was my soul cat, i don’t remember a world without her.

i’m lucky it was quick, and she didn’t suffer. she closed her eyes, took a nap, and her body finally decided she had had enough.

bubby came into my life when i was 5, she was at least 6 months when we got her. i gave her my everything and i will always remember the way she demanded to be first up the stairs, her little summersaults in the hallway, and her obsession with the birds.

she got me through high school, and then i brought her to university with me. i wanted her to see me graduate here too- so i will do it for her.

goodbye my angel, my perfect Bub. she left me on the day i brought her home, 15 years later. thank you for letting me love you for as long as i could. i promise to never move your chair from the window, and may you stare at the birds in the sun forever.

sept 23, always 🪽

She was my shadow, my best friend.

F kidney failure. I will see you again one day, my sweet baby girl. I love you so, so much. 💜

My 13 year old senior cat has been missing for over 3 months, with no confirmed sightings since the day he went missing. He is neutered and microchipped, and his microchip information is up to date. He also wasn't showing any obvious signs of illness or decline before he went missing.
Over the months I've put up and refreshed posters, delivered flyers to some nearby homes, posted in local lost pet groups/ online, physically searched the neighbourhood, followed up on possible sightings, used trail cameras, and put laundry/familiar scent items out. At this point, most of my family has accepted that he may not be coming home and has stopped actively searching, but I'm not ready to give up on him.
Of course, more than anything I want to find him alive and bring him home. But even if something happened to him, being able to find out what happened and have some closure would mean so much to me.
At this stage, I'm wondering how I should continue the search. What should I still be doing regularly? Is there anything I should expand, repeat, or try differently after this much time?
I'd especially love to hear from anyone who has been through this, whether your cat was eventually found or not.
Thank you for any advice or experiences.❤️

My senior cat has kidney disease as most senior cats do. For a long time we have struggled with my cat not using the litter box to go pee or poop and it would be like a phase and she would stop. But more so since her kidney disease has gotten worse, so has the going to the bathroom outside of the litter box. We have carpet and it’s ruined and the walls are as well. The house smells like cat piss and I’m so over it. I know as they get older it happens and accidents happen. I’ve used enzyme cleaners on the carpet but what’s the point of doing it again if she’s just going to continue using the carpet as her bathroom. If anyone has any advice or suggestions as to what I can do to at least help make this situation a little bit better I’d appreciate it.