r/SeniorCats • u/Aidoun_Trash • 7h ago
Nero's last day with us
Hey all.
I'm no native speaker, so please excuse my grammar
I'm not really used to writing something on Reddit, but I currently don't know how to cope otherwise, and I thought that people here will understand my feelings.
Our sweet boy recently turned 16, and he was really healthy for his age. He was so curious about the world around him, and still had lots of energy to play or just run around the house when he got his zoomies.
He came from a pretty bad household, but my gf got to save him from there, 10 years ago now.
He had a huge glow up, back then he would just hide and don't meow at all. But as the years passed by, he started talking to us, and even tried exploring the world outside of our apartment (with a cat leash, that is). We just grew so close to him, and everytime we visited the vet for a routine check, he told us that he's a really healthy boi and we thought we would still have a few more years with him.
Last week, he started biting and licking his hind leg a lot, to the point where he had no hair back then. The vet told us he had arthrosis, and was likely in pain, thats why he was licking there like crazy. Surely not comfortable for him, but nothing to be too worried about. Everything else was perfectly fine.
We got a few painkillers, which we should give him for about 10 days, and then come back to think about or next steps.
The last 2 days though, we noticed he had trouble eating, yesterday he was trying to eat but just couldn't, same with drinking. To the vet again, it was.
She looked into his maw, and found a squamous cell carcinoma beneath his tongue, causing a lot of pain, even though he was on painkillers.
She told us our options, and they were very bad. We should think about what to do, and said that it might be best to just let him go.
Tomorrow will be his last day with us, he will go to sleep in the evening.
I'm just constantly crying, and cant seem to catch my breath, our hearts are just broken. We got him some really strong painkillers now, and he is able to eat some paste food, so he definately won't starve. Overall, he seems fine, just a bit high on the painkillers, I suppose.
It's just so difficult to see him and think that the moments we have together will be the lasts. I know that it's better for him, and we are lucky we discovered it so fast, so there's not much suffering for him, but still, it just hurts so much.
Thank you for reading to this point, please just wish our baby boy just the best for his last journey. <3