(There's a TL;DR at the bottom for those of you who can't handle a couple minutes of reading)
(This part is skippable up to the line if you have Logophobia)
I've had a cat, a very nice cat, for 14 years now. I've had him since I was around 5, and now I'm 18 turning 19 soon. Well, he's sick, very sick. It seems all of the worlds unlucky coincidences have conspired together to give him the worst sickness possible at the worst possible time. My parents and sister went on a short vacation, which seems to have stressed him and caused an acute condition.
His symptoms are:
- Refusing to eat
- Drinking extremely little
- Borderline extreme dehydration (Because he won't damn drink)
- Lethargy
- Weakness (He can barely climb up stairs)
- Puking (He does this if he doesn't get medicine at regular intervals in his food. He ain't eating.)
And all of this seems to be the cause of a sudden kidney problem. It's stage 4, which basically means if he isn't treated he's gonna die pretty quick.
As some of you might know, I'm going to be starting university pretty soon. I've had a pet to help comfort and support me both emotionally and sometimes as a result physically for all of my life, and the chances are overwhelming that he isn't going to make it all the way through my time at university. He's an old cat, really old. Most cats don't live to his age, and he's starting to get to the point where we don't know how long we can take care of him. We went to the vet today and they gave an estimate of $1,067.00 to care for him until he's hopefully better. My parents aren't made of money, even though they payed the very large bill this time, next time they probably won't. They've also said they aren't going to get another cat or a dog. This has got me quite emotionally twisted, and if my recent posts have struck a nerve or seemed nonsensical that's a possible cause. I'm not exactly the most emotionally stable right now. How do you deal with a pet being put down? How can I help myself deal with it in the long term? I've never experienced anything like this before and I need some advice.
TL;DR cat is really sick and might get put down or die. How do I cope with this when it happens?
