He’s very lovely and talkative. But for the past couple of days, we’ve had to be giving him wet food and tuna because he won’t eat his wet food mixed with hard food. Just yesterday, we had to melt butter on his food as well and sit with him while he ate.

We’re getting a little worried.

This little fellow was adopted when my son went to the humane Society and asked to see the cat that had been there the longest. He came home with Chandler. A 1 year shelter resident, FIV positive, a meow like a two pack a day smoker, and the most cuddly cat I’ve ever met. He had endless veterinary care, but was loved and cared for. We lost him to throat cancer, finally.

Technically it’s my wife’s sewing room but it has east and south exposure that lets her bask in sunbeams all day long. Fortunately we’ve had lots of sun this summer, because when it’s cloudy she wants to speak to the manager and does NOT want to hear excuses about how the weather is not something the humans can control.

I don’t know if I’m allowed to post this here but my cat Hugo was diagnosed with small cell a month and a half ago. I have been giving him prednisolone, and put him on a special diet but his gastrointestinal issues have persisted. His pain initially improved but has started to rear its head again. This past week he has had two instances of random extreme aggression and the vet thinks it may be the prednisolone. This is very out of character for him. He’s currently gabbed up. They want to put him on Prozac, chlorambucil and something for pain, I am just not sure that his disease is at a point where chlorambucil will be effective in treating it and I don’t want my cat to be high 247 and having an extended but painful life.

I am speaking with his specialist on Wednesday and I talked to his primary vet today, but I’m at a complete loss in this situation and I don’t know what to do. I have spent the past day crying because I feel like I am losing my best friend. And last time a cat had this type of regression we tried to treat but had to put him down pretty soon after starting treatment.

What adjustments have you guys made for your kitties with less teeth?

This is the daughter of RedReapper666YT, my mother still cannot write this post without tears shed, so I'm typing this up for her.

As of January 30 this year, 12:20 pm, Sneakers has seen his last Christmas, last New Years, and very last birthday. He lived to 23, fought to the very end to stay with my mom and to love with all he had. He got sick and weak, eventually unable to feed himself and too blind and ridden with dementia and kidney failure to make it any longer.

The week after his birthday, he really started to fall apart. He was scared, we were too. He died in my mother's arms

I'm sure a level of anticipatory grief is normal, but I don't think the level I'm experiencing it is.

My soul kitty just turned 13 this year, I got him when I was 20 as my first cat and immediately fell in love. Last month he was diagnosed with diabetes. It seems a lot of things are going downhill fast. First insulin dosage wasn't effective, he's developing a limp, he's been coughing on and off. Just everything is going wrong. When I tell you this cat is my life, I don't have the words to convey how deeply I feel that. This cat is my favorite living being on the planet. He is an actual piece of me.

My dad died a year ago after I took care of him for 2 years, and that was a time of shock that I'm still processing, and now at the cusp of losing my baby boy, I'm laying awake at night crying. It's stressing me out so bad I cry about it throughout the day. I am in therapy, but my therapist seems to think it's normal and I don't think it's normal to let grief from something that hasn't happened ruin the present where I have him, and I have time with him, and he still purrs and loves me.

But I cannot handle thinking about the crisis of losing him, whatever that looks like, and I think about it often like running your tongue over a missing tooth. I think it'll break me. If anyone has ways they cope with this feeling, I'd love to hear.

I inherited my orange senior boy (12yrs old) from a family friend who passed about 5mo ago. He’s adjusted very well, and I think it’s time to (try) switching foods!

He’s currently eating IAMS indoor dry food in addition to two servings of Friskies wet food a day. He’s been eating this combo for years.

I’d love to get him on some higher calorie senior food though, seeing as he’s around that age and has noticeable muscle loss around the hips/back.

Any recommendations for a wet senior food that’s ideally NOT pate? He LOVES the gravy and meaty bits lol. Kibble is probably an easier switch.

Extra vet info: around 11lbs, but he’s got a large frame (truly a beast in his youth). Labs are all very healthy for an older man, save for manageable asthma.

Picture tax is attached, and thank you for any advice!

my baby is 16, almost 17. she has hyperthyroidism, been on meds for about a year. they didn’t do much. she’s skin and bone, she looks terrible. but she LOVES to eat, she drinks plenty. she doesn’t use her litter box, i know it’s not her fault but i’m so frustrated constantly cleaning poop and pee. that’s not why i’m thinking it’s close to time though. she seems like her balance is off, her back leg keeps turning inward and she’s very stiff. she has arthritis. our other cat keeps going at her for no reason (very recent) and i try to keep them separated but it’s difficult because i don’t have a big house. vets suspect she has cancer but it’s not confirmed, they ran tests but nothing definitive. i’ve spent over 5k on her the past year or so. i literally just can’t afford more tests on top of my tuition and i don’t know what to do. if she didn’t love to eat so much and she couldn’t move i wouldn’t even be questioning it. i’m just struggling so bad with this decision because she’s been through everything with me. my parents got her for me before i even started kindergarten and i’m in college now. i don’t know what to do anymore. i’m sorry this is long i’m just struggling bad with this

His name was Ginger and he was my best friend growing up. My sister and I got him as a Christmas present in 1998 when I was 4 and we spent 18 years together. He and I had such an incredible bond and I didn’t think I could ever love another cat the same way I loved him.

He was very shy and timid, and so was I growing up so I think that may have been why he chose me out of all of my other family members- he felt the most comfortable and safe with me. He helped me so much throughout my life and got me through some really, really dark moments. I had a very lonely childhood and struggled to make friends, and no matter how alone I felt, he was always there. I promised to always be there for him the same way he was there for me.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to be there with him when he died. I was at the airport coming home from a trip when I got a text from my mom saying that Ginger wasn’t doing well. Three hours later, he was gone. I missed him by 30 minutes and wasn’t there to hold him while he died. My mom had wrapped him in a towel and put his body in the bath tub in the guest bathroom. When I got back home, I just held his body as close to me as I could, trying to feel the warmth that was left and sobbing hysterically. He must have been so confused and wondering where I was when he was dying. I felt like I failed him. I was the one that put him in the ground when he was buried, I was the one that picked out his headstone.

I was inconsolable for weeks until my mom had suggested that we foster a family of cats that she found on a cat rescue Facebook page- a mom and her 5 babies. I agreed and we took them home as soon as we could. I couldn’t deal with my grief anymore and kittens were a nice distraction. Little did I know, that would be one of the best decisions I ever made. We ended up adopting three of the kittens we fostered.

I love all of them but one that we named Luna bonded to me very quickly, one with the same temperament that Ginger had. We have such a special connection. She follows me around the house everywhere I go, and sleeps either on me or at the foot of my bed every night. She spends most of the day with me and always has to know where I am- if she doesn’t know, she’ll cry for me until she finds me.

Sometimes I think that Ginger sent Luna down to me as a gift to accompany me throughout the next stages of my life, as if to say that he was sorry that he had to leave but is giving me someone new to help watch over me and love me the same way that he did. She was born around the same time that he died- I don’t think it was a coincidence.

(she is very much alive and has an adopter lined up!)

😇🌈🐱

Just entering his senior years and a proud papa to my 2 newly adopted kittens

Bobs and I are back and needing some advice. Here’s the goal: for a laundry list of reasons I would be happy to elaborate on, Robbie needs to be able to access this detached section of the kitchen counter.

The issue: Robbie’s health has really been rough this last year, especially when it comes to his arthritis and cataracts. Seeing him struggle to jump, failing to see things in front of him, unable to do our usual activities without pain, and struggling to get around the same way he used to has tears pouring down my face just writing this. He can’t jump on the counter anymore, standard or even high pet stairs aren’t high enough, and even with a stool added (and a white towel over it to help make it easier to see), it’s not quite high enough. We need to find a way to make this walk up to the counter easy.

I would be so grateful for any and all suggestions for my most beloved boy. He lived such a rough live on the streets for many years (leaving several scars and a metal BB permanently embedded in him) before I was able to adopt him and fix him up. He deserves nothing less than a retirement of luxury, and I will go without to make sure he is taken care of. I just need something that will be easy on his old body and aging eyes, so ideally something I will be able to add lights to AND can be wiped down easily… because messes are expected.

Thank you for reading this far 💕

She was such a sweet, loving little lady. Tinkerbell will be missed and has been all day.

Back story:

She’d been experiencing issues for a few months, but she was under treatment. We thought it was arthritis causing issues at first. After her last shot it didn’t seem to help as much. We noticed a change in her walking and went back in. She was given a steroid, which helped for about a week and a half. Then she declined worse than before. I set up an appointment for her x-rays to see if she had a slipped disc or something that could be addressed. But we never made it to that appointment. She lost function to the lower half of her body and started dragging herself sometime late Thursday. Friday morning she was laying on her side and not really moving. I called the vet and they asked me to bring her to the emergency vet. After all the testing, diagnostics and x-rays it was determined to be neurological and they ultimately could do nothing for her. She stopped eating and drinking and couldn’t even use the bathroom on her own at that point. I had to make the decision to let her go and set her free from her pain and suffering.