I have a great, old cat. He's ancient, like 16 or more years old. He's definitely got a limited time to live with a enlarged heart and it seems like other stuff is going bad. He's getting pretty skinny and gaunt looking.

How much does a skinny cat weigh? This one weighs 19 pounds. Yup... that's my big old Boo kitty.

Anyway, I know his end is coming but I figure we can probably do stuff to make him feel better. I read up on some of his symptoms on the Internet and he sounds like he has a potassium deficiency, which makes sense as he is on diuretics for his heart problem, and his kidneys are probably not working all that well. So, I take him to the vet... which, you have to know, this cat doesn't LIKE going to the vet. And trying to get a 19 pound cat into his carrier, even if he is old and getting weak, is practically an episode of ER.

I have to man handle the poor guy to get him in and I'm feeling guilty as hell about how I did it.

The vet gives him a good physical exam. Finds his pupils aren't dialating and he looks anemic and dehydrated. I tell the vet my suspicions about potassium, he doesn't really listen. He starts going on about wanting to run all kinds of expensive diagnostics to determine what is wrong with him, does he have cancer, does he have kidney failure, etc, diabetes, thyroid, half of these are tests he has already given my cat and wants to run again.

Its not like he can cure any of those things in my old kitty, because basically the cat is dying of old age. I just want him to treat the symptoms.

Anyway, I couldn't get the vet to understand what I wanted, maybe his desire to do expensive lab work and acquire a new car was blocking his ears.

I left just the way I came. With a sick, old cat now incredibly stressed by a trip to a vet that wants to play diagnostician with him. And I'm mad.

Do you think if I go to another vet and say, "Listen bub, here's my ancient sick cat, I want you to treat his symptoms," that I might have better luck?

probably. When doctors get into "let's run some tests"-mode, they usually are just looking for a buck.

Aww :(

I hate it when people are greedy to that kind of cruel expense. Perhaps if you look around you'll find a more honest vet.

Or maybe try to find a vet who does house calls. I know when my friends' cat was really old and sick, they found a travelling vet so they wouldn't have to stress him out taking him to the vet.

And yeah, I'd even ask to speak to your next potential doctor on the phone first, explain that he's old and sick and you're not interested in zillion dollar diagnostics, just remedies to make him more comfortable. Dunno, just a thought.

I think that often, doctors and vets alike, get into the 'try to prolong life as long as possible' mindset and they forget that they can't make their patients live forever. I think Chen has a good idea about calling the vet first and explaining that you want to treat symptoms, not diseases, although he/she may not be able to treat the symptoms without figuring out what the disease is that needs to be treated.

y sympathies to you. I think dealing with old sick animals is harder than old sick people. Old sick people can say (as my grandfather did) "I'm 92 years old, how much longer do you want me to live anyway?!!" (the doc wanted to put him on chemo for lung cancer). Our furry family members don't have that voice.

I just can't believe he didn't give me some potassium to help his kidneys and iron for his anemia. I went to the health food store and I'm going to try to do this myself until I find a more reasonable vet.

What ever happened to the old time vets? When did they stop trusting how to do a physical examaination and make decisions based on that? Sheesh!

Heh, well old farmyard vets didn't have to deal with that because the cat was always run over by 2 or 3!

Although I'm not a vet, I'm reviewing cardiac, renal and endocrine physiology for PT oral exams...so if you let me know what meds he's on I might be able to suggest a solution.

He's on 40mg of lasix and 5mg of enalipril. 40mg is an enormous dose for a cat, but he's a big, big cat.

Symptoms are: drinking a ton of water, peeing a ton. Losing weight, losing fur, lethargy, weakness in the legs, pale gums, pupils that are perma dialated. His appetite seems fairly good, but not what it once was. He is negative for thyroid, blood glucose is fine. He does have CFM (I think that's what it is called) Cardio-something-miopathy, an enlarged heart that we think irritates his esophagus and makes him cough. He has an irregular heart beat and his breathing often looks labored, but his lungs are currently clear. He has had fluid accumulate in them, but the diuretics helped.

Poor Kidney function is really common in elderly cats and they're often low on potassium which can cause all kinds of trouble. I bought a supplement today but you can't really buy much in the way of potassium OTC. It's like 3% of a human's RDA. Maybe it'll be enough to help him.

Right off a vet's web site about geriatric cats: the anemia, fur loss, weight loss, peeing... all signs of low potassium. Can't believe the stupid doctor didn't give me some.

I had a cat.
Named Zauberer, German for sorcerer. Black of course.
Born on April Fools Day.
Attacked by a pit bull on Holloween.
Spent over a K on Vet bills to keep him alive.
Pit bull died Holloween.
Zauberer died on Christmas.
April Fools!

Well, I just started giving Taboo potassium supplements and I think that's going to fix some of his problems. I wonder if I can find somethign with more potassium, you can't just buy much OTC. The pupils staying dialated is an issue though. I haven't been able to find anything about that. Maybe a side effect of his drugs?

Poor Zauberer :(

Taboo is on the right in this picture from better days:

http://www.nmcs.com/spawnweek/images/cathug1.jpg

I'm sorry to hear of your cat Fyyr.

Pan, I hope the potassium helps out Boo or at least makes him feel better.

What ever happened to the old time vets? When did they stop trusting how to do a physical examaination and make decisions based on that? Sheesh!When everyone started suing for malpractice. Doctors (and vets) run tests for EVERYTHING today to be safe. If a they diagnose incorrectly and the patient gets worse, or simply just doesn't get well, the next thing they see isn't the patient, but a court summons.

I remember when I lived in California... I took my dog to the vet in our small town and he started off with "well, we need to take x-rays first then I want to do tests for --- and --- and ---." I told him that I was a bit unsure of the tests and did he really think that ALL that was necessary because my puppydog didn't seem to be in danger of dying. His response? "Well.... if you don't care about your pet then we won't run the tests". Needless to say I found a pet in another town and it was always WELL worth the extra drive.

Find a new vet. There are a ton of vets out there who care about their patients and owners. Find one with a personality and "bedside manner" that suits you better. If you get one who won't talk to you directly about a specific concern, move on. The days of uninformed patients and "mysterious magical cures" is long past.

Woot! I found out cream of tartar is high in potassium! Higher than the stupid pills I bought. Thank you, USDA nutrient database!

Thanks for the advice. I think given Taboo's age and everything I'm going to treat him at home. I don't think he's got long to live and stressing him out with vet trips, and staying over night like the vet wants, is too much for him. Might as well just try to make him as happy and comfortable as I can myself. We've had a long run together... gosh, I think maybe 17 years?

Pan, just wanted to see how Taboo is doing. Does the extra potassium seem to be helping? Crossing fingers that you can help to make him more comfortable.

I think so. I took him off the diuretics, but I'll have to put him back on or his lungs will fill up with water. And I'm giving him about 200mg of potassium tartrate (i.e. cream of tartar) once a day. Funny thing about potassium, you can't get reasonably high doses of it OTC, but you can go to a chemical store and just buy it! I'm just a little scared about working around it.

He immediately stopped drinking so much water and was up and around a lot more during the day. We even had a wonderful brushing session (he loves brushing).

But I did read that it takes about 4-8 weeks for a cat to recover from a potassium deficiency. So we shall see.

Ok, I found this on the web. It very much reminds me of Taboo's face when he was younger and his fur was shiney.

http://a1259.g.akamai.net/f/1259/5586/1d/images.art.com/images/PRODUCTS/Regular/10007000/10007825.jpg

Now, imagine these eyes in a cats head that is probably 2.5 times larger than a normal cats head. That's my Taboo. :)

And Taboo seems to be very receptive to learning how to respond to voice commands. I say to him "Up, up big kitty" and he'll jump off my bed. He's so damn good about obeying.... most of the time. Of course, he knows "medicine" and "medicine time" and tries to slink away.

Taboo intimidates people because of his size and his meow. When you pet him, he'll meow loudly sometimes and thump his tail (which is quite a powerful thump!). On another cat, I'd almost say that the cat was showing displeasure, but with Taboo he's definitely grooving on it. Anyway, he's just this enormous cat with the sweet disposition. Not really a cuddler most of the time, but he does have his moments when he wants a piece of the lap, or he wants to sit on my chest and stamp around on my boobs a bit. Having 19 pounds of cat suddenly jump on your middle, when you were just contemplating getting off the couch to use the bathroom, can be uncomfortable. If I hadn't already had my appendix out, I would think Taboo would have probably ruptured it for me. He used to lay down on my chest, put his paws on my neck and lick my ears. Fortunately his enormous tongue isn't sand paper sharp like my siamese cats tongue. Occassionally Taboo would decide to bite my head. Why? No clue. Just every now and then, I think he got silly and wanted to take a bite of my hair and scalp. Fortunately, he never bit hard. Just enough to remind me he was a big cat, with big teeth and he could if he didn't love me.