well sadly my Persian cat passed away last Thursday due to poor health. He was fine up until that morning, chasing my other cat, eating, going to toilet fine, just his naughty self. Thursday afternoon he was laying down in a funny postion and i went to move him and found out he couldn't stand or walk and was in alot of pain, so i rushed him to the local vets and they checked him over and said we need to keep him to operate. He had a huge lump on his abdomen and his liver was really bad also. They said operating had a chance of killing him as it was a serious operation or something. Well he pulled through the operation, they took his spline out but his liver was really bad and they couldn't do anything. I never went to see him the last time, my parents went, i didn't go because i was really upset i didn't wanna see him hurt and in pain, my mum said he was lifeless not moving, in blankets to keep him warm, couldn't eat on his own and was on pain killers. Well the vet talked and said personally she would put him to sleep as his liver is too far gone, the vet said he would last 3 or so days if we kept him alive and would be in pain, so i couldn't do that to him so being for the best i told my mum to let the vet do whats right. so sadly we put him to rest. I now feel so bad i cant sleep, eat, do anything i feel as if it was all my fault for not taking my cat to the vets sooner, what i'm asking is would my cat of been in pain the last months of his life? he was normal, himself up until that morning. I keep blaming myself for his death, he was only 13 is that old in cat years? i feel as if i should of gone to see him one last time, but i couldn't bring myself to it that day. Also would he remember me in the last day of his life? he couldn't walk but was trying to and had his eyes open i took 50 or so pictures because i thought something bad was happening. Would he remember me stroking him and trying to help him? i feel so bad for not taking him sooner. And now i'm left with one Persian cat a girl who is 12 years old and she is missing him, she keeps crying out and looking everywhere, will she get used to it?
well i hope i asked this in the right place i just want to know if my cat would of been in pain for the last months of his life, i feel as if its my fault.

Hi

I'm going to try and help here with the bits I can say something about. Obviously these are general comments as I don't know the full clinical details of your poor cat who you have sadly lost. First, don't blame yourself. You are bound to feel distress and grief but it wasn't your fault this happened. If your cat really was behaving quite normally up to the time he suddenly collapsed then how could you suspect there was a problem? I think he had a tumour which developed over time then possibly bled suddenly, causing him to collapse. I don't believe prior to that he could have been in lots of pain. I have seen these types of tumour problems develop over time, usually in older cats, and often show no symptoms until problems are becoming very severe. At 13 years he was quite old though many cats live to at least that age or older.
Your other cat will miss him but pets don't grieve long term like we do and most times they seem to cope better than us with the loss of a companion. She will benefit from having lots of fuss and cuddles from you and probably enjoy that. Sounds to me like you and your vet really did everything possible to help your cat but sadly he had an incurable problem.

Cathy Wickenden BVet Med MRCVS
Barton Lodge Veterinary Centre
1 Midland Road, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP2 5BH
Tel: 01442 216048 24 hours
[www.bartonlodgevets.co.uk]