Too soon to euthanize?

Question
I have just buried my beloved companion of 16 years. Although I never got a firm diagnosis, behavior and tests indicated problems with the liver and/or kidneys. When I brought him in today, his blood sugar was high, he was dehydrated, and the vet gave him a prognosis of "guarded to poor" merely to be stabilized, which would have required hospitalization (and as this is labor day, at an emergency clinic--not near my home where I could easily be with him if status changed).

Even after stabulization the question was how soon before the underlying cause killed him.

I knew he would be very unhappy in the hospital, and I did not want him to die alone there, but--and here comes the heart of the question--I would have wanted to give him every last good day he could have had. He was clearly in some pain and had not slept at all for the last 24 hours, yet he wasn't looking at me at the vets office as if to say "I want to die" but rather "When can we leave and go home?" He hadn't stopped trying to eat (although probably partly because he was on appetite enhancers) and he was still making it to his litter box.

How can I know that I haven't deprived him--and me--of a few more good days?

Afterwards the vet told me I had done what she would have done with her own pet, but I'd appreciate hearing from you and others who have been in this situation of making a call when it wasn't perhaps as apparently black and white as you might have liked.

Answer
Kay,

I am SO sorry about your cat. It is never an easy decision to make. I have gone both ways. I have put them down when recommended and, even though I knew it was the BEST thing to do, I always wondered if it was the RIGHT thing to do. I have also let them live if they had a will to live, but it is very sad and hard to watch a beloved pet that is sick and in pain slowly die because you didn't want to have it euthanized.

The thought is nice about giving him good last days but you DID give him last good days...and months and years. He knew he was loved and that is what counts.

Animals are only ours for a short time compared with the time we have with people. It is very natural to want to keep them with us as long as possible and prolong their death. But at what cost to them? To be blunt, your cat had a death sentence. Whether it happened now or it happened later...it WAS going to happen. His body was wearing out. At 16 years in human years he was 84 years old in cat years.

He could have lingered for a short time or a long time. But they would have been pain-filled days....both for you and for him.

You just lost a member of your family and it will take awhile for the heartache to subside. You can never replace him in your heart, but you may want to give the love you had for him to a new little kitty. One that is unwanted and doomed for death at the SPCA or Animal Control. One who will never know any love or affection, never have a home, and never have the chance to 'catch his first mouse'.
It would fill up the emptiness left by your cat in your home and your heart and let a poor unwanted kitty have the chance of being loved like your cat was.

I am including a link to a very good article about grieving when you lose a cat. I hope it helps a little.
Copy and past the link into your address bar.

http://www.2ndchance.info/grieving.htm

Again, I'm sorry. If there is any other way I can be of any help let me know.

Carol