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just had to make the decision to have our cat put to sleep.
she was 15 and had gone downhill in the last couple of months,her fur had become messy and she had lost alot of weight.
she also had developed an absyss behind an eye and looked a right state.the vet said there could be so much wrong with her that it could put her through more pain and no guarantee of recovery.
playing god like that with our pets life was an incredibilly difficult decision,and was heartbreaking for my mrs, my lad and myself.
i'm now dreading picking up my daughter at 3pm and breaking the news to her :cry:
i thought it wouldn't effect me much, but i was blubbing like a baby at the vets. :(

Arriba I am really sorry to hear this news, cats are great company and very random creatures to have around the house.  

The only positive thing you can take from this is she is not in pain any longer

sorry to hear that fella.

Faced a similar situation about 5 years ago and its fucking tough. Just think she will not suffer any more

sorry to hear that arriba, we had the same problem with our dog a few years ago, but she decided to go off on her own and we found her in a ditch nearby.  :(

must be difficult. Are you planning on getting a new one to enjoy from a young'un again?

Oh man that's sad!  Sorry to hear such news.

Must be hard being a parent in situations like that cos I assume you have to be strong for your kids.

Oh Thats so sad - especially if your kids have grown up with her- If anything happened to my cat I just dont know what I would do - shes like my child.

Im getting tearful just reading this actually

sorry to hear that Arriba

Bloody good innings though Arriba. Long happy life.

Arriba

I know how you feel

My Cairn Terrier, Sue, went through a period a couple of years ago where she was clearly in real pain.  Took her to the vets who x-rayed her and said that there was a shadow on her pancreas.  Opened her up and said that he found panreatic cancer, very aggressive and said that she would be gone in 2-3 weeks.  I picked up my wife and kids and my eldest came back from Uni so that we were all there. Concluded that we would 'let her go' if she was still asleep when we got there.  She was sittting up groggy but awake when we arrived, so we took her home still fearing the worst.

She's still here!

Turns out that Cairns have an allergy to sweet corn!  We always let her munch on the cobs when be have a BBQ - looks lile the poor litttle bugger just had a sore belly, but what a relief.

Know exatly how you feel we had to take a decision a few months ago on one of our cats who had got Cancer and was getting worse after having Chemo (sp) unfortunelty he was put too sleep as it was kinder but it did not make it any easier on us as you question yourself if you done the right thing.

His ashes are in a little coffin which we keep in the house, it is weird as at times we seem to hear tapping on the wooden floor like cat's nails when the other cat is out it's as if he is still walking round the house.

i'll never know if we've made the right decision really,cause she may have recovered?
she may have suffered more?thats all i can think about at the moment.
i never thought our pet cat could have such an impact on us.its knocked us for six :(
she had always been in good health and virtually trouble free until recently.
i cannot see us getting another one.not for the forseeable future anyway.thanks for your kind comments all

Sorry to hear that arriba. I had to make the decision to have my dog put to sleep about 2 years ago. Both her back legs were gone. She couldn't walk. She was 18 years old as well. Its a very hard to decision to make cos pets are like a member of the family.

i'm sorry to hear about it arriba, i dread the day i lose my cat...

Thats really sad, My mum had hers put down a few months back, its a horrible decision to make as others have said ,but you can only hope that at least she is no longer in pain...
My 8 year old told his nanna it was all ok cos cat heaven is a wonderful place full of balls of wool and cat treats, which is a comfortable thought maybe?

I've only had my kitten for a month or so and she's already a fully fledged family member, looked after as i child would be!

Saw a dog the other day obviously had problems with it's back leg's but it had a wheel contraption to help it walk

Arriba - cat heaven is ace, as Miss Angry said. Tell your daughter how happy and pain free the cat will be there.

I'd be devestated if anything happened to my 2 mogs. One has to go the vet tomorrow for some teeth out, she's 10 and I worry about her coming round after the general anesthetic... :(

Sad news.

My mutt's 13 and has been the only constant in my life for that time.

Moved 4 times, had three relationships, 3 jobs but my dog's always been there.

I know I'll breakdown when his time's up..........................

But I'm not a homo or anything.................................

on a lighter note my cat pooed her trousers in the extension today but luckily the cleaner was there and she cleaned it up!!

A couple of points to make on the above......................

Your cat wears trousers!!!??


You've got a cleaner!!!???

no not actually trousers but you know the fur at the back i looks a bit like trousers  :oops:

Im not ashamed that I have a cleaner! twice a month! shes ace!

Sorry to hear this Arriba. I had 5 cats and a dog when I lived in Canada. There are now only 2 cats living over there. its very sad.   My dog "missy" below was lovely but had cancer. We did everything for her and the doctor like you said "we can do this but it may extend her life by a month" She would always be in pain and never be how she was. We took the difficult decision to put her down.

Its hard mate but remember the good times. Pets are very loving animals and it is very very hard to lose one who has brought a lot of joy to you. They are there for you when you need them.

Here are some pictures of my Dog beore she died and the card.

CARD FROM THE VETS

http://www.shawngreen.net/missy/cardfront.jpg

http://www.shawngreen.net/missy/cardcenter%20001.jpg

JUST BEFORE MY DOG DIED

http://www.shawngreen.net/missy/b1.JPG

http://www.shawngreen.net/missy/b2.JPG

http://www.shawngreen.net/missy/b3.jpg

Aw im sorry to hear about your cat :(  it must have been a very hard decision but like people have said she is no longer in pain and there is no point questioning whether she would have got better, you need to trust the vet was right. Im 17 and our cat Kizzy is 20 so has been here every day of my life, i cannot imgaine life without her, she is a member of the family! But just remember you gave her a good home and a good life, and still have all the fantastic memories, and although you have the pain of losing her, you and her had 15 fantastic years together, which she may not have gotten if you hadn't of had her. All the best.

cheers gazza and stfc11,nice words.
its hit my kids hardest as the cat had been there all of their lives up until now.my daughter has written a little note to the cat that i read when i returned from work last night. :cry: i'm just wracked with the guilt that i chose to end its life rather than take the chance on her getting better.

its also made me realise that the euthanasia debate with humans is no cut and dried issue.if the death of a pet does this to someone, imagine what people with sick relatives go through?
sorry for another depressing post by the way!

It does raise the question, I have left instructions to my family that if I am ever on a machine or suffer brain damage I woudl rather not live.

Must kill someoen to do that though

Apparently, Senior Nurses have the authority wether to resucitate (sp?) or not now. Thats a good move.

I hate seeing people/animals suffer in pain. If I'm in pain and have limited chance of recovery I'd rather go off peacefully to ease the pain and suffering not just of myself but others also.

She died at 3pm this afternoon, came round after anesthetic but then relapsed  :cry: the vet called in tears.

RIP Spook - at least I have no kids to break the news to

Oh man!!!  What's going on!!  Sorry to hear about that Bo!

 :cry:
I hope you're ok and your other cat wont be to lonely

We lost our cat a few years ago, it was a bit of a strange one really as I'd grown up with it but it had stopped coming in the house for some reason...

Always sad when a pet dies. My mum cried hysterically when we lost our first hamster... You will never see anyone so upset over a hamster!

Are you gonna get a new one arriba?? Always hard to replace pets I think, in case it isn't the same..

You can have my little shit, he ripped a new shirt of mine tonight

I read that as little shirt and new shit. Huh huh huh.

Its his owner that shits the house not the other way around

Jeez, what a crap week for pets, sorry arriba and bo. Looks like one of Birdys horses may be off to the pritt stick factory on Thursday too.  :(

really sorry to hear that mate. :(
the vet that dealt with our cat cried too.
i'm finished with feeling sorry for myself now though.whats done is done.

Thanks everyone.

Our other little cat who is a mini cat seems lost and the house feels empty. The mini cat was out all night obvioulsy looking for her mate.

We're off to get married in 5 weeks and will be away for a month so we can't really replace the spookster until we get back, Mia is going to have to go to the cattery on her own.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b100/landofbo/spookandmissy2.jpg

When we lost one of our cats Meg just sat out the back crying for her to come back.  Which didn;t really make us feel any better.  

So we went up the pub.  Then on the way home we went back to the place where Tess had ran out of the vets into the bushes and found her, at 3am.

Never felt so relieved!

Thats really lucky! The pub obviously worked.  I lost my sisters cat after looking after it for 2 days, my sister was looking for it for 6 weeks then it came back.  It now lives with my sisters neighbour as she hates my sister for giving her toi me!

Poor little thing had been hiding in the bushes outside Tesco's (by The Abbeymeads) for over 12 hours, she was too scared to come out, as she was only a few months old at the time and had spent all her life indoors.

They've both been treated like royalty since - the spoilt little brats!

oh ym god Im actually nearly crying reading this thread its so sad

I shouted at my cat this morning as she was being horrible and moody and screaming at me - Im going to make sure when I get home I give her lots of strokes to say sorry

You might have already given her a stroke! :o

*tries.......not.... to....make..... lame joke about stroking pussy*

*fails* :cry:

meany!  :P

bloody charming!  :evil:

but yes he is losing the loss of his limbs and it's the kindest thing.  Poor boy survived being hit by a car but the cold weather will kill him  :cry:

its must be even worse seeing a strong animal like a horse on its last legs
what does he mean by Pritt stick factory?

he means that horses are either turned into glue or dog meat when they die. Which I think was harsh considering what I've had to deal with recently. Seeing a horse you've cared for for 15 years being shot and taken away on the back of a lorry is not nice.

Don't horses get a single shot to the head to ease the pain.

Fook could I do that.

digby's started to get a bit arthiritic since we moved, jumping down on the wooden floors has taken it's toll on him, poor bugger...he's 15 years old now but i'm so grateful he's healthy for his age, sad as it sounds i'd be lost without him.

sorry to hear about your cat bo :(

how did your horse get hit by a car? is it skunk?

a horse once hit a van we hired to move house, the horse was fine but the van wasn't 8)

horses rock.

Yes, but I didn't know it was for definite until just now. Sorry.

dont you get a say on what happens to the body of a horse?

No it is't Skunk, it is Bob he is black with a white star just like Black Beauty  :(  Anyway there were 4 of us out riding one day and bob was at the back, car just came flying up behind us and hit bob in the ribs, claimed he didn't see 4 big horses, riders all wearing high vis clothing and on a straight bit of road.

Before I get stick for riding on the road, we had 200 yards to go on the road from the field to the bridleway on a quiet country lane. It was touch and go if he'd survive then, the car broke his ribs and punctured his lung and I sat wth him for a whole freezing cold January day making sure he didn't die. The police wouldn't prosecute and made him go on a driving course.

No I don't as I am not actually the owner, I just look after him for the owner.  What I say means diddly squat.  :cry:

arriba, bo, birdy - you're all having a rough time which I wouldn't wish on anybody. It will get better.

We lost our 15 year old cat, which we'd had since I was 3, and I cried like a baby for days when he died. He was just one of those dopey old lap cats who, if you ventured near a sofa and sat down, would park himself squarely on your lap for hours. He also slept on the end of my bed.... :oops: