Did we do the right thing

Tuesday, Dec 21, we had our 17 year old cat put down. It was not an easy decision, but we felt it was the only humane thing to do. Our cat, Mystery, as 17, and was down to 2 kg, from around 6 - 8 kg just a year ago. We knew she was loosing weight, and were concerned, but she seemed to not be in pain and was eating, and drinking. Only red-flag was that she had stopped using the litter-box. Tuesday morning my wife called to me and told me that Mystery was breathing very heavy, and was concerned. I looked at her, and her breathing was very labored, and uneven. One side of her chest would rise more than the other. So we started calling around to find a vet and took her in asap. The vet said they needed an x-ray, but it didn't help, as there was so much fluid in the chest region that she couldn't see the lungs or hart, just a white area that she said as fluid. My wife and I decided it was not fair to our cat to keep her around with treatments that would probably only give her a couple of days, if anything, as they were not guaranteed to work. They offered an O2 tent and diuretics' pills. That's when she started open-mouth panting. So we went ahead and made the decision to end her suffering. She never displayed the classic signs of being in pain; never hid, always was in her favorite spots in the window and on her chair, she was eating and drinking anything we gave her. The vet said she suspected cancer, but couldn't tell, and with this sudden decline in her breathing, the end might come quickly anyway, and it would not be as peaceful passing. I just can't  help but think we acted too rashly and jumped right to euthanasia.

Hello - and here is a huge, online hug.  It is always hard to lose a pet, but losing one at such a great age, presumably after a long time together, and suddenly too - is never easy.  It is absolutely normal to greive and one possible stage of grief is the time where you look back and have doubts.  It is common to attribute blame at this stage - sometimes to the clinicians, sometimes to yourself, sometimes to members of your family.  As I say, this is normal - and sometimes such feelings take a while to pass.  I can hear that you are trying to understand the situation rationally and think through your role in what happened.  This can definitely be helpful in this case... A second post is coming up.

Struggling to breathe is known as dyspnoea, and this is a very common feline emergency presentation.  As you suggested, the symptoms can often be treated in the short-term and a certain level of comfort restored, but the symptoms can be distressing for both cat and owner, and although the long-term prognosis depends on the underlying cause, it is frequently poor.  As you mention, cancer (neoplasia) is a major cause;  other possibilities include heart disease and infection.  It is unusual for a healthy cat to simply 'get' a chest infection which is treated with antibiotics and goes away; such cases are usually much more complicated.   When I was taught about feline dyspnoea on an emergency critical care course a few years ago, we were told that most dyspnoeic cats would pass away within a few months of presentation.  Emergency vets can often determine, through listening to the chest, where-abouts in the cavity the problem is and will be able to advise accordingly, but it would be unrealistic to expect to buy a significant good quality or length of life in a nineteen-year-old cat presenting like this. Some owners would ask for investigation and treatment in such a situation and there may be possible very rare occasions when the outcome is better than expected, but in the situation you describe, there is a fair chance that I would have made the same choice.

You may have heard of a Website called The Ralph Site, which was set up by a wonderful vet named Shailen Jasseni, who trained me in emergency critical care when I was a student.  Shailen realised just how much owners can struggle with the loss of a pet when his own cat, Ralph, passed away.   The Ralph Site helps people after the loss of a pet and can be well worth a visit.