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Rosemary
2-28-11, 8:10am
we adopted a beautiful tabby about a year ago. She was a very active young cat and was just beginning to become more cat-like and less kitten-like at about 1.5 years old. She slept on my daughter's bed every night and often sat in her room when she was playing. She visited me every time I got up during the night and always greeted me at the door when I returned home.

Unfortunately, she ate everything - swim goggles, socks, gloves, doll clothes, erasers... although we put a lot of effort into it (and one emergency vet visit last summer to get the swim goggles out), it was impossible to remove everything from her reach. So here and there I saw bites out of socks, etc. Nothing ever seemed to cause her trouble, and I got used to occasionally seeing weird colors in the litter box.

She started vomiting about 2 weeks ago. At first it was just once, then it happened a few times during a week. I made a vet appt and we had her x-rayed last week.

Her stomach and duodenum were greatly enlarged from all of this stuff that couldn't get out. She did not seem to be in any pain - yet. But I had noticed changes in her eating habits for about a week prior to this - eating less, and making a big mess that she normally would clean up. On Friday, she wouldn't eat anything... normally the smell of good food would have her immediately in the kitchen. She was interested, but when I gave her some chicken, she wouldn't even lick at it.

The vet gave us a price quote for surgery and it was simply not something we could do.

So I had to take her to be put to sleep this weekend. My heart still hurts, both for her and for my daughter. I haven't been able to sleep much and it is constantly with me. I feel like I made the best decision I could with the available information... but it's still painful.

CathyA
2-28-11, 8:19am
Oh Rosemary, I'm so sorry. We get so close to our furry little friends. You gave her a wonderful home and love. I'm glad you found each other.
It sounds like she had a definite brain problem which led her to eat strange things. You gave her as good a life as possible. I'm really sorry you lost her.

pinkytoe
2-28-11, 8:24am
I am sorry to hear of your loss. We also acquired a cat a year ago who is addicted to eating strange things - anything plastic or rubbery. We have to always be on guard not to leave things out he might chew on. Sure makes me wonder what causes that cat behavior.

sweetana3
2-28-11, 9:33am
It is a hard decision to make. But she had a great home and life.

Mrs-M
2-28-11, 9:36am
A warm hug Rosemary. This is why I am so torn as to taking the plunge and getting a family pet. I just couldn't stand the loss.

Bootsie
2-28-11, 9:38am
I'm so sorry to hear the sad news, but the situation in her belly would've only gotten worse and worse. I also cats who eat chew on rubbery things, and my purse handles have cat bite marks on them. You have my sympathies as it is sad to lose a pet.

Anne Lee
2-28-11, 9:52am
So sorry. It's really hard, isn't it.

iris lily
2-28-11, 10:34am
I am sorry to hear about your kitty cat. IT is weird when cats eat inappropriate things. Usually that's a dog thing.

Rosemary
2-28-11, 11:59am
Thanks, everyone. This was a really difficult weekend as I had to hold myself together for my daughter's sake... she was doing so well that I didn't want to be a weeping mess in front of her. I have had to have senior, very ill cats put to sleep before but this was so different... yet it would have had the same outcome in the end.

For those who mention having cats who do this, it's called pica. I wish our vet had given me some tips when we took her in after the goggle incident, but I didn't know better. Apparently it tends to show up in cats around puberty (which is when she started), can be more common in certain breeds, can be caused by a mineral deficiency or boredom. This cat had a very, very strong instinct to hunt, and I often felt bad that I couldn't let her outside because she so clearly wanted to be out there (roads, cars, dogs, etc). So I think she was hunting things around the house.

Hindsight makes things harder. I expect the hurt will east as the week goes on, but oh, it's been painful and sad thinking about it.

CathyA
2-28-11, 12:36pm
Yes, it will definitely hurt less as a little time goes by. Our 11 year old cat died last year from hyperthyroidism. I did always feel bad that he wasn't allowed outside....but like you, there just seemed to be too many dangerous things out there. We call our pets "prisoners of love".
Sometimes, its good to just let your sorrow out. Its okay that your children see you cry. In my experience, its much more painful to try to keep from crying than to just feel it and let it happen.
(((((hugs)))))

kally
2-28-11, 12:41pm
i am so sorry about your cat. It is so hard when they seem young and strong, but she would have been sicker and sicker. These decisions are awful, but you owed it to your cat and now she has no more pain.

early morning
2-28-11, 7:07pm
So sorry about your loss. ((( )))

loosechickens
2-28-11, 7:36pm
so sorry about your kitty......although if she had that condition, even if you could have afforded the operation, you probably couldn't have stopped her from eating stuff in the future, so would have faced the same situation down the road, despite emptying your bank account.

I know that doesn't make it any easier, but you did the best you could, and sometimes hard choices just have to be made.

JaneV2.0
2-28-11, 8:20pm
Everything about losing a much-loved cat is hard, but the second-guessing and what-ifs can drive you crazy. I like to think I did the best I could for mine, but I'm not always convinced. You have my deepest sympathy.

fidgiegirl
2-28-11, 8:31pm
So sorry to hear this, Rosemary. Hugs!!!

Sad Eyed Lady
2-28-11, 9:03pm
I am so sorry Rosemary - so very sorry. We have a little guy who will eat everything too (especially anything plastic) and we have to watch him all the time. As you said, you can't parole everything even when you do the best you can. May your heart heal with only good memories and the love that this little friend brought into your life, no matter how short.

Wildflower
3-1-11, 4:33am
I'm so sorry, Rosemary. Hugs.

Kat
3-1-11, 10:15am
I'm so sorry, Rosemary. I hope you are able to find some peace and comfort in knowing that you did the very best you could in a difficult situation.

Rosemary
3-2-11, 12:30pm
Thanks, everyone, for your support. It has been a difficult week since we got the first information, but I am starting to feel a little better. For a few days I just had to make myself do the necessary stuff, couldn't sleep, etc. I've had to have cats put to sleep before, but it was when they were very old and had different types of problems - cancer, kidney failure. It was different with this cat; there was some level of guilt associated with her problem - COULD we have made the house safer? should we have realized earlier that she needed to be something other than a house cat - live on a farm, for instance?

Well, anyway, we did the best we could.

CathyA
3-2-11, 2:48pm
As they say, "hindsight is 20/20". My cat got extremely obese, and I put him on a diet.....changing food, only feeding a certain amount, etc. He lost weight and looked great. Then I realized he was getting too thin. He got so fussy about what he would eat. Sometimes we'd have to feed him with a syringe. We tried medication, but it was too late. I guess I "should" have wondered about his weight loss, but just thought our diet was working. We can think of all sorts of things we could have/should have done, but what we were doing seemed to make sense.......just like what you thought you were doing was making sense. All we can pay attention to is that we loved them and they loved us. Life happens. Please don't punish yourself for the outcome. Your cat had an unusual problem. She would have found lots of other unusual things to eat, even if you had put lots of things up or made her an outside cat.

jp1
3-3-11, 11:52pm
Rosemary, so sorry to hear about this sad outcome. Please don't beat yourself up. My first cat, Harry, got sick with a degenerative kidney disease of some sort. His only symptom was fussiness about food. He still liked the "good" stuff like pork roast so we didn't worry too much. We'd just been to the vet and he needed a teeth cleaning so we mistakenly thought it was just a dental problem until we took him in a couple of weeks later for his teeth cleaning and he was 3 days away from dieing.

Cats are mysterious. And they're not good at telling their humans when they don't feel well. You did all that you could and it sounds like you made the right decision.

In our case it took getting 2 new cats to fill the void left in our life by the loss of Harry. We've had them for 6 years but not a day passes where I don't at least spend a moment worrying that we're not doing right in the way we care for them, but we're doing the best we can. And the joy we get from spending time with them each day far beats out the sadness we risk that one of them will die unexpectedly. And if one of them does die before old age I think I'll be comfortable knowing that we really did our best in caring for them.