Natalie Durkin
Hear Hear, Doc.
I first came to you as a human and her feline patient upon hearing "you just picked this cat off the street and had him neutered and plan to keep him safe in your home, but he's FeLeuk+, so you should just put him down. Oren had 4 magnificent thriving years with me under your care (he was a middle aged street cat when I took him in). He was a magnificent animal, and I am still gutted that he left me when he did. He was well until he wasn't, and it came on very fast.
And then, there was dear old sagely Franklin. I was in no way planning to euthanize him the day that ended up happening, but that evening, after I got home from work, it washed over me that he was only here because he thought I wanted/needed him to be. He had stopped eating, and moving around was very difficult for him. He was very weak. He just laid listlessly, feigning interest if I called him. In that instant, it came to me that we/he didn't have to do this anymore. I had to help him in and out of the car that night-- that was the ONLY time I ever had to do that for him, and he was not pleased about it. "Mom. Hey. I do this on my own, remember?" ...only, he couldn't. His disease had progressed to where he didn't get to live on the terms he had so perfectly set for himself for 15 years. Even though he wasn't in any apparent intractable pain, and incontinence wasn't an issue, and the explosive nosebleeds that came with his cancer had also been controlled to some extent. In his case, it was just a gentle wave of acceptance that he didn't need to starve to death, which is where he was heading over the next few days. You and I were emailing that night, and you wrote, "if he's no longer eating, then drinking will be next, followed by loss of consciousness." When I realized that's where we were, and he was clearly on his way out, but felt he needed to be there for me, I set my friend free.
We aimed for a gentle landing, and he definitely had that.
I will never ever understand vets who suggest euthanization based on diagnostics. I mean, we don't ever even consider that for humans (even when there IS intractable pain and zero hope of healing), so why on earth would we suggest doing so simply because the patient isn't verbal (let me be clear-- verbal as in human speech)?? Makes zero sense to me. How can someone call themselves a doctor and not honor the sentient nature of their patients simply because they have 4 legs and bark or meow or whinney or whatever the vocalization may be? Beats me.
Thanks for writing this.