Re: RE..Update Akira

[Lernermichelle]

Re: euthanasia, everyone has their own take on it. I think it is ok to let Akira go on her own, and it sounds like there are still things she is enjoying, even if you are willing to help her at the point if/when she stops enjoying anything.  But I do not see any harm in giving sub q fluids if it does not freak her out, and giving a shot of dexamethasone to see if it helps. Neither will hurt and they could make her much more comfortable.  Many dying humans are on dexamethasone I have heard, as it increases feelings of physical and mental well-being.   Given how long she has held on, though, I am also not sure that a test or two would be a bad idea to see if this is something she can actually survive.  I can not see her, only you can, so you have a better idea. I did not think she had hope of surviving before you emailed how she is doing these last few days.  I don't know if you remember what happened with Simon, but he seemed at least as close to death a month before he actually died. He could not walk or even hold himself up in the litter box-- I had to hold him in there, and he had not eaten or been fed for 3 days or drunk anything for 2 days. I loaded him up with steroids and then thought there was no hope and just stayed with him, thinking he would die, and all of a sudden one night he started drinking and eating and by the next day was walking around and jumping. He only had another month after that, but most of it was really good time-- eating, playing, cuddling, going outside, and even climbing up a carpeted wall into the ceiling (the first feline in the house to do that).  I am not saying Akira could have a month, and I am not saying that everyone would or should think that a month is worth intervention of any kind, but I do want to convey to you that I and everyone on this list thought Simon was in the process of dying when some simple steroid shots pulled him out of it.  He then got more chemo, of course, which is probably what gave him most of the month.   Basically, I do not think that you are necessarily wrong in what you are thinking and what you are doing, but I do not think your boyfriend is necessarily wrong either. There might be things that could save her, or at least give her a little more quality time, but you can't know without trying them.  It may be that she does not want that, that you do not want that, and/or that you can not afford it.  I am just saying that it really might be possible.   I have let several cats go without euthanasia, and have also done euthanasia right at the end when they clearly enter the last stage of dying (respiratory distress).  I do not euthanize before that except in exceptional circumstances where it is clear something really horrible is about to happen.  So I have seen a lot of last days.  I personally have never seen the dying process take 10 days. Perhaps that is because I have given fluids, steroids, and feedings until they could not accept them anymore due to vomiting, etc., but it is usually pretty close to the end at that point.  I may be wrong, as I only know what has happened to my own animals and clearly I have not seen everything, but it seems to me that if she is taking this long to die she has, or had, some reserves and really was not, and maybe is not, so close to death.   I am not sure where that leaves anything, but I just wanted to counterbalance the suggestion to euthanize her.  I am not saying that such suggestion is wrong; I just disagree with it because I have seen amazing rebounds, and what Akira is going through and doing makes it seem to me that the absence of food and water are probably what are making her the weakest right now.   Prayers to you both, Michelle