Ugh, we don't know what to do. Our sweet almost 19 year old cat, Lola, is becoming increasingly incontinent. We just treated her for a suspected UTI (vet couldn't get a urine sample to verify that there was infection, but she's had off-and-on piddle issues for the past year. Sometimes blood-tinged and likely cystitis. She's been using the dirty laundry or any towel on the bathroom floor for #1 for over a year. We suspect this is mostly due to the trek to the basement being too much for her. For a while we had a litter box upstairs, but the only place we had to put it was off the kitchen--then our 3 lazy boys would use it, too, and track litter EVERYWHERE, including on kitchen counters. We dealt with that for about a month before we were just too grossed-out to keep the box up here. We figured pee in dirty laundry isn't really a big deal, since it's already dirty, anyhow.

Lola managed 9 of the 10 days she was prescribed the antibiotics. It was giving her horrible diarrhea all over the house and she suddenly started refusing her thyroid meds (she's hyper) in her formerly beloved Pill Pockets. She is supposed to have blood work done to check her thyroid levels in the next week, but after not taking her meds for several days I'm guessing the vet's going to want to wait, again. We have been getting her meds into her for the past few days by wrapping the pill in a glob of melted cheese (she really is my cat, heh).

Aside from being arthritic she doesn't seem to be in real pain...but all she does is sleep. And now she has a constant wet bottom from her bladder issues. She's happy and affectionate...but we wonder if we should be extending her life at this point. The vet did comment that there is a drug that can help cats with incontinence issues, but that it may be contraindicated with her thyroid issues, since it can apparently have a stimulant effect (I think this is what she said).

In 3.5 weeks we have an out-of-state friend's wedding to attend. We will be gone for 4 nights. We're afraid to leave Lola alone for so long. We could board her at our vet's, but that would be stressful for her, too.

WWYD? The last cat we decided to put down was 11 and had suffered a seizure just days before we decided to have him euthanized. He actually died at home just hours before his appointment. I've never had to take an elderly cat to be put down...I'm not even really sure when the time is right. It would be easier if she appeared to be in pain. I wonder if we're considering this out of our own convenience.