Accepted Answer

Hi XXXXXXXX,

First, I think it's safe to say that there are no human medications to ease her final time. We use many of the same human prescription drugs, for similar reasons in veterinary medicine. But we do it knowing what it is that we are dealing with.

When entering the area of pain and discomfort meds, like aspirin, tylenol, ibuprofen, and similar however, we run into problems, especially with cats. These are generally toxic to the cat because they metabolize them differently. For example, it takes two days for the effects of a baby aspirin to wear off in a healthy cat. If we don't give that time, the drug causes blood and liver problems. Other medications like these have no non-toxic dosages, so we use none of them in the cats.

Plus, just what sort of medication would be indicated for her? In spite of your efforts, she is suffering malnourishment, probably secondary to whatever malady she may have. The loss of muscle mass is making her very weak, and this is probably the cause of her trembling. Eyes are, many times, indicators of what is going on internally. Recall times you may have been down with a cold, or flu. Were not your eyes affected as well? Mattering and drier than normal?

She is functioning internally at a greatly reduced level. .. nothing is working quite normally, but is nevertheless working... passably. I suspect you feel so badly for her that you think she must feel the same. I don't think she is feeling really uncomfortable, or you would be able to tell.

If she is able to take care of her eliminations in a relatively normal fashion, then she is not necessarily 'feeling bad', but just passing time... something quite familiar to a cat. She knows she isn't able to be very active, so she doesn't try. Animals don't bemoan what they used to be able to do, as we tend to do. If it gets to the point that she isn't able to take care of her 'toilet', then this will be distressful to her, as it would be to us. If it gets to that, then quality of life becomes an issue and you would be justified in considering it time to spare her dignity further stress.

I guess I haven't really answered your question as to what may be available to help her. I think that is both because there is nothing, and if she really needed something, then it may be time to consider euthanasia. In my experience, starting with just a 'little something' to take the edge off often leads to something just a little stronger, and a little stronger yet until it can become heroic measures to maintain life at whatever cost.

I hope this is helpful nevertheless.

Expert:	Peter Bennett, DVM
Pos. Feedback:	98.4 %
Accepts:
Answered:	2/26/2009

Veterinarian

20 years experience as a Small Animal veterinarian