Littermates,
We had our 19 year old cat Zappo euthanized on Tuesday. He had diabetes and renal failure; his creatinine was 3.0 in March, 3.2 3 weeks ago when we took him to the vet for inappetance/failure to thrive, and 4.0 last week. He became unable to eat secondary to mouth sores; last Friday we saw the vet, increased his subq fluids to daily, got pain medications and pepcid, but his mouth got no better over the weekend. He was drooling, mouth open, and could neither eat nor drink. He was getting weaker and stumbling when he walked, although he was awake/alert because we were hydrating him. So we made the difficult decision to end his suffering, as the vet offered no hope of his mouth healing. (And she examined his mouth after his death and feels that he may have had oral cancer because of an enlarged tongue.)
He was my husband's cat. He answered an ad for kittens 19 summers ago and all the kittens ran under the farmer's porch; he reached under, grabbed a tabby with a white chest and feet and named him Zappo. When we got married, it took Zappo awhile to acknowledge me as Meowmy; when my husband was away overnight Zappo would stand in the kitchen and cry for him! Eventually, he accepted me as part of the colony. As a youngster, Zappo explored the outdoors, climbed trees and caught rodents and baby rabbits; after a move he became an indoor-only cat who loved birdwatching and could grab a feather toy out of the air. He lived in 5 different states, traveling with his family without complaint. Although he was not a lap cat, he liked to be in the room with you and would greet me in the morning for a chin rub and wait by the door for me to come home (even when my husband had already fed him). Lately, he had been staying upstairs, in the heated bed I got him for Christmas, but he would still lift his head for a chin rub and purr.
He had been slowing down, and I knew the end was coming- I just wish it could have been next year, or the next...other cats live years with renal failure! Why not Zappo? we treated his blood pressure, diabetes, tried to treat his renal failure with prescription food, gave him appetite stimulants, subq fluids...I tried everything they suggested and yet it wasn't enough. Goodnight, sweet Zappo (1992-August 9th 2011).
