Cant Keep Quiet!

My old man is sitting near me as I type this. Actually, he’s laying down, but that’s okay. He’s been with me for nearly 18 years. I wish he could be with me for 18 more but I don’t think he’ll stick around much longer.

My old man’s real name is Tugger. Well, Tugger is his nickname. His full name is Rum Tum Tugger.

Yes, he’s a cat. He’s an 18 year old cat. The picture below was taken about 18 months ago.

Up until a month ago or so I was always sure that Tug would have a heart attack one day. He was by far the biggest fraidy cat I’d ever known. He would hide if anyone came to the house. If you tried to track him down and bring him out of his hiding place you risked losing a hand.

Until 2 years ago, Tugger had never had an illness more serious than a mild cold.

In July of 2004, Tugger’s kidneys failed. We almost lost him then but the vet was able to get them going again. For a couple of weeks I had to give Tugger 100ccs of saline solution under his skin at the scruff of his neck. As he got better I was able to reduce the amount of times he was given the saline solution until finally, he no longer needed it.

Before Tug got sick he weighed between 12 and 13 pounds. He lost a lot of weight when he was ill but finally settled at 6 to 7 pounds. In the picture above he weighed about 6 pounds.

He’s been thin for so long that I didn’t realize at first just how much weight he’d lost in the last month. After all, since 2004 we’ve been able to feel his backbones when we petted him. He’d never ate enough to put any of the weight back on, but it had been fairly stable at about 6 pounds, give or take an ounce.

Not too long ago he started acting like we’d never feed him a day in his life. It seemed he was always hungry, but he wasn’t gaining weight. For the most part I wasn’t too worried since I knew that at his age he wouldn’t be able to absorb the nutrients like he could when he was younger.

Then he started to lose some weight but I didn’t realize how much until Monday night. Monday night he came into my bedroom while I was trying to sleep and went climbing all over me and my bed. That’s when I thought to myself, "Good lord, he barely feels like he weighs a thing!" I immediately got up, picked up Tugger, weighed both of us, and then put him down and weighed myself.

On Monday night he weighed 4.5 pounds.

We started nearly doubling what we’ve been feeding him the next day and I made an appointment to take him to the vet. The appointment wasn’t until Thursday afternoon. By then his weight had dropped to 4 pounds 4 ounces.

The vet found a mass at the area his thyroid would be. Right now we aren’t sure if it’s just an enlarged thyroid or a tumor. He also took a blood sample and urine sample for testing.

Yesterday I got most of the results from the blood work back.

One of the possibilities the vet had mentioned on Thursday was diabetes. That he doesn’t have. The other possibility was a problem with his thyroid but the results haven’t come back for that one yet.

Based on what we do have back, the news isn’t encouraging.

Tugger is losing protein through his kidneys. That’s why he eats and eats but still loses weight. He has an elevated liver enzyme and his calcium levels are elevated. The results indicate that there is possibly a problem in his liver, intestines, and/or kidneys.

There are a few ways to find out what is wrong. One would be exploratory surgery, but I won’t put him through that. Another would be to insert a scope down his throat, again, I won’t put him through that. The last is to do a sonagram. Like they do with expectant mothers.

The last one is the only one I would consider but I’ve decided not to do it. It would cost $350 to $500+ and more than likely we wouldn’t be able to do anything with the results.

Most of the treatments for any of the possibly problems involve some sort of chemotherapy. Given his age and weight, he more than likely wouldn’t survive the treatment. One of the other possibilities doesn’t involve chemo but it’s treatment would only prolong Tugger’s life for a short period of time.

The vet told me to think about what I wanted to do and that he would get back to me when the thyroid results were back. I didn’t bother to tell him at the time that I’d already made my decision.

Tugger is eighteen years old. We will feed him canned cat food whenever he gets hungry. As long as he is not in pain, I will not put him through a procedure that will cause him stress and/or pain. Especially since the procedure will not provide us information that will change my mind about how he should live out the rest of his life.

I won’t put him on chemo and I won’t put him through a treatment that will stress him out just to extend his life by a month or two.

Right now he is not in pain. As long as he remains pain free, we’ll just keep feeding him when he’s hungry and loving him. If he gets to the point that he is in pain, well, I’ll worry about that if and when it happens. Not before.