I have an 18 yo cat. He has serious hyperthyroid, high blood pressure, arthritis, and his vision is bad. His kidneys are OK but on the downward slide, and his liver is iffy.
Every time I go to the vet they say, "Well, he’s not getting better. Let’s adjust his medications, and bring him back in 3 weeks–plus I’d like to add another medication." These visits and tests run me close to 0, and of course they never have a clue what the medications cost. I’ve been through this several times now.
Well, he’s not going to get "better"–he’s 18! What will all these adjustments really achieve, besides costing a fortune and denying me the chance to really deal psychologically with the fact that my cat is slowly dying. But they only write the prescriptions for a few weeks at a time, so I have to go back.
Can I/should I say I don’t want to do any more blood panels, and insist they just renew the prescriptions he’s on for some reasonable period like 6 months?
How can I say this? His quality of life is still OK, I just want to pick a medication level and stick with that until it’s time to put him down, and just monitor things like his weight to see how it’s working.
I didn’t say I wanted to put him down, I said his quality of life is OK now. But they’re talking long-term treatments on a cat who doesn’t have a long-term ahead. His numbers don’t have to be perfect if he’s not going to live long enough for it to matter.
