When I wrote about the hardest part of having a cat five days ago, I didn’t know we would say goodbye to Elwood just three days later.
Elwood passed on October 21, 2024, from kidney disease.
I will share a little about his life and what happened with the kidney disease. Writing helps me process my grief when a cat dies.
Elwood’s 10 Years of Life
Elwood was one of the kittens we rescued in 2014 from our yard.
Violet, a stray cat in my neighborhood, had kittens in a garage a few houses away. We didn’t know she was an unowned cat until the kittens followed her to our yard.
She had five kittens. We decided to keep Elwood, his brother Jake, and Violet. We found wonderful indoor homes for the other three kittens.
We already had three indoor cats, and so we went from having three to six cats. Many people were unkind about our decision to have “so many cats,” but it was one of the best decisions we ever made.
At most, we’ve had nine indoor cats. We tried having ten twice, but that didn’t work out.
Elwood was a quiet cat who loved spending time with the other cats. He loved to snuggle with Buster (who died 8 months ago) and Jake. And more recently, with Nacho.
He also liked to sit in the sun and would spend many hours in our little upstairs cat room with the other cats that liked to be in that room.
I was his favorite human, with my husband being a close second. He was the type of cat that hid when anyone visited.
When Elwood was younger, he would tackle my toes when I was in bed. Towards the end of his life, he wanted to be in the bed near me at night.
Elwood’s Kidney Disease
Elwood’s kidney disease was discovered only seven months ago.
At a regular checkup, the vet recommended bloodwork as Elwood has lost around two pounds since his prior visit.
It had been nearly two years since his last visit. Usually, we do vet checkups once a year, but for several reasons (including Buster’s illness), Elwood’s visit had been delayed.
He seemed fine, and we didn’t notice that he had lost weight. We don’t know how long he had the kidney disease before it was diagnosed.
I didn’t know much about cat kidney disease. The three other indoor cats that we have lost had other issues (thyroid disease, old age, and cancer).
We switched the cats to Hill’s prescription food for kidney disease. Maybe it helped delay his decline for a while.
Elwood’s Slow Decline from the Kidney Disease
Watching Elwood slowly die from kidney disease was difficult.
I read about cat kidney disease to learn the symptoms and what to expect.
Elwood became anemic from the kidney disease. At first, he was okay with taking the medicine. But after a week, he wasn’t.
Any attempts to mix the supplement (Pet-Tinic) into a wet food treat failed. And he wasn’t interested in eating wet food.
We also tried an appetite stimulant for a couple of weeks, but it didn’t seem to help him much.
About a month ago, at a checkup, the vet suggested we give him weekly B12 shots at home. The shots gave him a boost for a while.
Gradually, he lost more weight, and it was becoming challenging to want to take any pictures of him.
Elwood’s Last Weekend
Elwood seemed to be hanging there.
He was very interested in eating cat treats, and we would give him extra, as even the vet agreed that something was better than nothing.
During his last weekend, Elwood’s bad breath became worse.
By Monday morning, it was becoming overwhelmingly strong. It was horrible.
Elwood had also developed a sore by his lip. I first noticed a possible sore on Friday night.
It was a little black spot and at first I wasn’t even sure if it was a sore. However, by Sunday it was much worse.
You can see the sore, in the picture in the article about how to know when to put your cat down.
On Sunday night, I spent hours trying to learn more about this sore. I could find articles about mouth sores and cat kidney disease but not much about lip sores.
Also, I couldn’t find anywhere if the lip sore was treatable for a cat with kidney disease. On Sunday night, I decided to call the vet in the morning.
Also, Elwood didn’t want to eat his treats on Sunday night. He would smell them but not eat them.
He eventually ate some of them a few hours later. And he lay nearby on the couch with me as I read a book.
While he was obviously sick, he didn’t seem to be suffering.
By Monday morning, the sore was much worse. It was black and almost like it was peeling his skin off under his lip.
I managed to call the vet’s office and get an appointment without crying. I was calm and said Elwood had a sore lip.
However, by the time we left for the vet, I had a feeling it was going to be his last trip.
- The stench of his breath had become even worse.
- We have cat water fountains, and overnight night, more water had been consumed than ever before in one night, even with Elwood drinking extra due to the disease.
- Taco chased Elwood away from the water fountain area that morning. It was VERY unusual for Taco to chase Elwood.
- In Elwood’s final six months or so, he would often sit on my chest while I ate breakfast on the couch with Charlotte sitting on my legs. Charlotte darted off my lap when she smelled him that weekend.
- I had never before seen a sore get so bad so quickly on a cat.
The confusing part was that Elwood had run and jumped onto a table the morning. And he ate half of a meat tube treat.
He was never lethargic at home like we saw with Buster. It’s hard to know sometimes when to put a cat down.
The vet quickly let us know that Elwood had absolutely no quality of life and recommended euthanasia. The sore was caused by toxins from his kidneys not functioning.
We didn’t want to watch Elwood suffer or slowly starve to death, and we agreed to let him go.
Elwood had a wonderful life for ten years (except for his last few months). He was a great cat and brave right up until his final moments.
Read Next: Grieving the Loss of a Cat
Heidi Bender is the writer and founder of the Joy of Cats. She enjoys sharing cat information and providing helpful cat tips. She considers herself a cat lady and currently cares for eight cats.