My mom took in a stray cat about 18 months ago. Last week, the cat took off for four days into the woods behind my moms house. My mom called her and called her for days and was about to lose hope. Finally, she decided to walk back into the woods as far as she could go b/c she knew thats really the only place the cat could have gone with the exception of someone else taking her in.

Long story short, last night at about 10 pm, my mom walked in the room while she was having what looked like a seizure or something. Or she was recovering from just having one. She could not stand up, she could not walk, her eyes were moving very rapidly, breathing hard, very panicked, etc. My mom took her into the Cat ER last night and had them look at her. They have determined that she does not have epilepsy or any seizure disease that can be treated. They could not determine anything by blood work so they sent her to the regular vet at 6:30 this morning. They could not determine anything either, so they sent her to the animal neurologist. They are saying it could be some sort of disease or tumor or really bad illness, but they definitely think it's something in her brain. He said especially her wondering off like she did last week.

My mom has spent over $3,000 since last night at 10pm and it's still piling up. They still have to do an MRI and Catscan next week (which by the way is going to probably mean she isn't coming to see us, afterall :( ).

The vet has already told her that they don't know if they can do anything for the cat. They have no idea what's wrong with her, but they were HOPING it was epilepsy b/c that's treatable. They don't know if the cat is even treatable at this point. They assured my mom over and over that they would understand if she wanted to put the cat down, but my mom has said she will spend whatever she needs to. She's not putting the cat down. She's really attached to this cat.

What would you do? Would you keep pushing and spending the money if you knew it would be the upwards of $5,000 to do the testing, even if the outlook was less than 50/50? Would there be any cap to the amount you spent?

We have a dog that we've had since she was a puppy and luckily she just has epileptic seizures. In the past few months tho she has gotten worse and right now we're just playing the time game. We keep talking about how much longer she has. Just watching her suffer is hard enough. I know it would probably be extremely hard for your mom to think about putting her down, but if there is nothing the vet can do to help the cat then it might be in the best interest of the cat to put her down. We've seriously thought about what we're going to do for Tubby once she gets to the point that we can really only make her comfortable. Rather than see her suffer we're going to just put her down so that she isn't in pain anymore. They can't talk to us to let us know how bad things are and seeing the hurt in their eyes just breaks my heart! This probably hasn't helped much. I hope your mom is ok with all of this going on. I'm sure it's extremely emotionally draining as well as financially! I'll be praying for her and the kitty!!!

In MY family and financial scituation I wouldn't spend the money... because I don't have it. But I also don't have pets so I may not have the sensative view others would have on it.

Oh man :( How sad.....Well, for me personally, I would look into pet insurance and see if she can use that even though a disease has already been possibly found. If not, than that is a very tough choice...On one hand, I consider a pet like a family member, so you obviously wouldn't let your child or spouse die...but on the other..

I don't know Brandi...Tough call...I'd be absolutely torn on what to do.

What does your Mom think about doing? She obviously loves this cat or wouldn't of shelled out $3K and have it still piling up.

There is assistance for pet medical costs, has she tried looking into it? Even though I know to some it seems ridiculous to spend so much money on a 'pet' I feel for your mom. Pets can be like children and I can understand her want and need to do everything possible for this little animal. Although I would understand her decision to let the kitty go, I can also understand her want to keep doing everything necessary to give her a good healthy life. Have her ask the vets office about payment plans and vet insurance, I know for sure there are programs out there for assistance with situations like this.

Well, pet insurance is not covering it. She can't even get it on this cat.. at least not to cover any costs that are considered related to this condition. I don't know what other types of assistance are out there though b/c my mom's been asking and no one has said a thing. So, I'm assuming there is nothing that she is eligible for or that fits the situation/condition.

My mom makes decent money, but she is in real estate and has had a couple of VERY bad months lately b/c she is in a very crappy community. She was actually planning on switching jobs next month but is now unable to do that due to depleting a lot of her savings money and only who knows how much else she will have to spend before anything is figured out. When I asked what she wanted to do, she said "I don't have the money to keep spending, but I can't just leave her like this". The cat is in serious condition right now. Its either going to require putting her to sleep or probably some sort of really expensive surgery on the brain to remove a tumor or cancer or whatever is causing this. The cat still can not walk or function and is obviously very sick.

I can see both sides and it's a hard decision. I was just curious what all of you would do if you were in this situation. :(

That's a tough one. We got pet insurance for our dog to large expenses like this so we wouldn't have to deal with that situation. I honestly don't know what i would do. I guess I would have to have a cap...

ETA: after reading your response, I would probably put the pet down if she still was in pain. since they can't even figure out what's wrong and the cat is suffering, i would probably choose that route. :(

I think I would put the cat down since they aren't sure what is causing it. If they gave a 90% chance of being ok then I would spend the money but a 50/50 isn't good enough odds for me personally.

How horrible.....Your poor Mom..I'd probably choose to put the cat to sleep if what you stated in your last post was the case.

Well, the hardest part is that I don't think she's really in any "pain". I'm not sure what the vets have said so I'm not 100% sure. But my mom said that she's just really "out of it". Like, she's lethargic and just not able to walk or really move. They don't know if she's hurting or not (they probably won't know until they figure o ut the cause of all of this) but for right now, she's just not well.

Another personal concern of MINE is that my mom has 10 other cats. She takes in stray cats, gets them spayed/nuetered, gives the moms a place to have kittens if they are preggo, then tries to find homes for all of them once they're old enough or well enough. However, she's EXTREMELY attached to like 8 of them and I'm just worried that she's going to end up getting in the habit of doing this for all of them. Not that it's not a noble thing to do... but with that many cats coming in and out, and with all of the $$ she already spends totally out of pocket on them, I'm worried she is going to put herself ina really big hole. She does get low cost spay and neuter, but all of the other stuff like vet visits when they are sick, food, etc are all out of pocket. And she takes in strays ALLLLLLLL the time. I'm just worried about HER well-being, I guess. She would probably go way into debt for each and every one of them b/c she loves animals so much, but she has to think about herself too. She has a good sized mortgage, insurance, car payment, etc. *sigh* I wish there was some way she could get help, but I think they have pretty much determined that there really is no help for her,w hich is why the vet was telling her that they would be perfectly fine with putting the cat down if she decides to do that. I don't think she will though. She loves animals WAY too much.

That's wonderful your mom has a big heart for animals....but she does have her financial responsibilities, like you said. Putting the cat to sleep might be the best choice. If the vet determines the cat is just so incoherent- doesn't know where she is or whats goingong- & nothing can be done, the cat is only suffering.

How difficult this must be for your poor mom :(. Well even if she can't financial assitance, has she asked the vet's office if they would be willing to do a payment plan with her? I know lots of vets offices do it, I mean Im sure they've had people before who have had to spend thousands of unexpected dollars for their pets, I would hope they would be sensitive to that. Because regardless of what happens with the poor kitty now, your mom still has to pay that money, I hope they can work with her on that. Sounds like your mom has a very big heart.

poor cat :( If I was in her situation, I'd put the cat to sleep. How sweet of her to care for all the cats.

We are in kind of a similar situation as we speak. We are about 5-600$ into diagnostics alone (not even positive what the issue is yet) and it's not looking good right now. I will post more in a couple of hours when we know more information. But anyway, it is a very personal decision for us, and we will make the decision that is right for us.

The neurologist said it could be MANY things. He went over all sorts of possibilities with my mom and said about 1/2 of them are fixable and 1/2 are not. One thing it COULD be is a fungal infection around the brain. Another is cancer. Another is something called FIP (not exactly sure what it is but it's something to do with cats and is terminal). Could be a tumor. Doesn't look like poison of any kind b/c they did all sorts of toxin tests and nothing at all showed up. They will know more after the MRI on Tuesday... if she makes it that long. My mom is keeping her at the kitty hospital until then and they're trying some antiobiotics and other antiinflamatory meds in case there is swelling in the head around the brain.

She seems sort of coherent, like she was purring when my mom was petting her, but she has NO control over her body AT ALL. Can not stand, walk, jump, etc. They did tests to see if she had any movement/control and as soon as they put her down, she fell over on her side or went to the floor spread eagle. So, the neuro guy said he definitely thinks it's something internal, inside the brain, not external (which would be better :( ). My mom isn't giving up hope though. She gave the vet permission to do whatever they think is necessary... if she rapidly deteriorates, they will put her down. if not, they are supposed to do whatever they can to keep her alive.

I'll keep everyone updated. Good luck with your cat, as well, Laurie. Hope everything is okay. (L)