question: our 15 yr old cat is deaf, throws up every day, and is losing hair. She doesn’t seem miserable, sort of just lies around all day. Once in a great while wrestles with the younger cat. When do draw a line deciding that her life should be over gracefully; without her going through the agony of the dying process? just wondering what you all think; have a vet appointment soon.
The throwing up everyday and not being nourished is the key one. Like is she throwing up a good portion of her food? I’ve never had a cat (only dogs!) but I guess I’d have to start wondering if she can be content and satisfied or “happy” while she is shrinking (weight).
Ask your vet. All of our lost weight over their final years. Two were cancer, one I can’t remember, and one we don’t know. But that one sounds like yours, minus being deaf. She was 16 and slowly losing weight over the last 5ish years. She always threw up - for most of her life actually. But, we figured she would let us know when it was time. One morning, she woke up obviously in pain shrieking. So, we tried to rush her to the vet. She died as I put her in the cat carrier. It was not pretty. As hard as putting them down is, that was a lot worse. I am VERY sorry. It is so hard.
Let the vet guide you. I’m sorry.
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Our cats have always let us know. There’s a change in their behavior. One lived to be 22 1/2 years old. His final morning I think he had a stroke, but we were able to put him out of his misery quickly (for him - really, really sad for us). Until then he loved to sit on our porch or with us and watch life go by.
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So sorry to hear about your kitty. Hope the vet appointment is soon. From experience with one of our cats, they will probably draw labs to see if there is kidney or liver disease. If the labs are abnormal, which I would think at this point, there is likely some stage of kidney failure, they may give fluids, and an anti-emetic. Some older vets may give a steroid injection that will hold them for a few weeks. We chose this option because our cat did not seem to be suffering. On the follow up a few weeks later with the original vet’s son who is also a vet, he gently moved the conversation to euthanasia. Hugs.
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Has anyone else had this happen?
Yesterday I spent a good part of the day helping unload a UHaul and more as one son has moved from NC to OH. Last night I couldn’t see enough to read well. I could make out about 4 letters of a word, so could sort of read by “scrolling,” but not like everyday reading. Typing was all rote memory. This was the same in each eye (I checked) and didn’t change if I moved the screen closer or further from my eyes, so seemed really weird and has never happened before (to me). When I was on here last night, I was actually doing so to check my reading/writing… (Creeklanders can be weird)
We’re in new territory (OH vs home in PA) and it was evening when I discovered it, so I did what many would do and waited to see if it got better. After about 4 hours or so, it did. It’s totally normal today.
Later this month I have a regular MRI to check on my old tumor (or for new ones) and an MRA to finally check to see if there are fistulas causing me to hear my pulse, so I’ll soon have answers on those. I had routine recent bloodwork of all sorts done with nothing abnormally (for me) out of range (stuff done every year via a school wellness program).
My curiosity is still stoked though. I’d call my own medical lad (isn’t that what medical parents do?), but he’s working the ICU overnight, so I certainly don’t want to wake him up or bother him with something that’s better now. Nonetheless, WTH? High BP from helping move for so long (vs farm chores which don’t take as long)? Somehow getting dehydrated perhaps? Anyone want to take a guess?
Not one single muscle is sore from the move, so it’s difficult for me to think I exerted my body too much. And yet, it happened.
This getting old thing (sigh)…
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Sounds like a migraine to me…I get vision disturbances like your describe every so often, sometimes followed by a fun blown migraine, sometimes not. Just a thought?
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If so, there was no pain involved with it. And all thoughts are welcome. I’ll probably be mentioning it to the doctor during visits after tests are done anyway, esp if anything shows up “off,” unless I find out that’s it’s super common and in no way potentially related.
This is just my curiosity getting to me now and figuring out “who” I can ask (who might have experience with it) without disturbing anyone or boring them to death. (Folks who are bored here can just move on to a different thread. 
)
If the disturbance was one visual field rather than one eye, and could be compensated by moving so that the object being read is in a different quadrant of the visual field, then that is exactly what happens to me during a migraine with aura, but for me the aura is always followed by pain. They say the aura lasts around 20 minutes because that’s how long the electrical signal takes to travel across the brain. But other things to consider would be amaurosis fugax or optic neuritis. I hope it’s nothing serious!
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I wouldn’t wait to tell your doctor.
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Don’t know if this is best here or for the storage/organization thread.
We’ve been redoing the floors and refurnishing S’s room. Replacing the twin bed with a full/queen. Took down all his memorabilia and the souvenirs he’s collected over the years. This kid loves snowglobes or tiny miniatures of distinct buildings - so he has a lot of these from all over the world that he used to pick up. What’s the best way to pack/store these? I did buy a couple of large boxes from Costco and I can wrap each of these in tissue paper and stack them in the boxes - but I’d hate for them to break. Don’t think I can do individual boxes for each of them - he has too many!
First I’d take pics of all of them (you can maybe put several in one photo) if he’s not local and make sure he still wants them - now’s the time to narrow down the supply - before you pack and store away!
I guess I’d wrap them in tissue and then maybe newspaper (rather than newspaper directly on the surface of them and then randomly cushion the inside of the box that has several with either some bubble wrap or old tshirts or something to cushion any movement. Or if you’re doing stacked layers, deconstruct a cardboard box and put a flat piece between each layer - like many christmas decor storage boxes do.
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I’d use the boxes that Christmas ornaments come in. Assuming you can find them somewhere.
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This is what I thought except perhaps the snowglobes.
I would wrap them in thin bubble wrap and try to find liquor cartons for storage, similar concept as Xmas ornament boxes - built in dividers. I had a large snow globe collection and it was the first thing I packed when we knew we would be moving.
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I store all of my Christmas ornaments in a sturdy plastic tub with a latched lid in a “lasagna” fashion (no dividers). All ornaments get wrapped in tissue paper. The heaviest ones go on the bottom, then get covered with a loose layer of bubble wrap. Then the next layer of tissue paper-wrapped ornaments goes on, making sure there are no voids left, and then the layers get repeated until the box is filled to the top. The main trick is to make sure the ornaments are packed tightly so they don’t shift or rattle if the box is dropped. I have not lost a single one in 20-plus years of doing this.
This might work for storing your kid’s “treasures.” 
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Photos are a great idea. If you are ever in a project mood, you could consider making a small photo booklet of the all… maybe make him feel better about parting with some of the items.
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Also be careful that the boxes never get moved out of the way to the garage where the snow globes can freeze. DAMHIKT
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Bought a couple of large boxes from Costco this week. Going to try packing these as carefully as possible this weekend. Biggest problem is that they are all of different sizes. A couple of them have chipped over the years- the mini Taj Mahal lost one of its minarets - will need to see if I can gorilla glue it back