First, to clarify, it isn't my cat. It's my twin brother's. Even so, I spend as much time with it as he does and we both care for it. My brother has been dealing with this all day and I was the first one with the time to ask about this.
Many people would say euthanasia is most humane at this point. Persistent incureable infections is not a good match for surgery.
I don't know how relevant ENT/eye infections are, though. I SUSPECT that FIV may make them relevant but the vet hasn't said anything like that yet.
The cat has a broken leg and FIV. The options you are considering is amputation or surgery.
I can understand you love your cat very much, but, either of these options will lead to more pain and complications for the poor thing.
Can't be sure since the professionals haven't said anything. They haven't even mentioned euthanasia.
How old is the cat?
You might research how successful these surgeries are for cats with AIDS. I'd guess area shelters would have the best info/most experience with that. For example, I know there's a shelter in Denver that has an AIDS-only room, so their sample size would be greater than the typical vet's office.
If the success rate is low, and/or the expectation for infection and suffering is especially high, then euthanasia might indeed be the better option.
We don't really know. The vet says "about three years" but I saw him for many more. I know I saw him regularly in 2008 and probably earlier years earlier, so that age estimate sounds WAY off to me.
He was hiding under the most recently parked cars for many winters before a neighbor caught him and spent hundreds fixing him up. Before that he always ran away no matter how hungry, sick, or bloody he was. Seeing how rough he was, we didn't even consider that he was a Manx and always though his tail was chopped during his harsh life. If you got close enough to see you'd notice that his eyes were always crusted up and you could hear him struggling to breathe through his sickly sinuses. Honestly, I thought he was the most feral cat I had ever seen. Now he's a totally different cat! Seeing him cuddle and show affection makes it seem almost impossible that he's the same ragged cat that would always run (or limp) away at the sight or sound of a human. You couldn't offer him food or warmth or anything.
The neighbor couldn't keep him because he couldn't be around her cats.
The cat has a broken leg. Choose quickly, for the sake of the cat.
If the cat is otherwise strong and the prognosis for recovering from the surgery good, personally I would go for the surgery. FIV cats can live a long time (or not). If the cat is already declining in health then the choice would be much harder. I do not envy you the decision you have to make.
He's a happy, active cat despite the infections. His eyes and ears are always leaking something and his breath stinks because of it. I don't know if that means it is full-blown feline AIDS, but I believe it is. Antibiotics clear it up only during the course and it always comes back so his normal vet recommended against further treatment for the infection.
Cat did something unexpected that he's only done once prior (when he recognized the neighbor who always takes him to the vet): Hid under blankets. He did this when my brother was in the shower and unexpected visitors began throwing rocks and the window to get his attention. My brother came out rushing to get dressed and sat on the bed to get his shoes on or something and ended up sitting right on the cat. The cat ran off and hid so no one knew how badly he was hurt until much later.
There was a charity
www.10thlife.org that along with the vet I used to work for did a lot of research into feline diseases especially FIV and FIP.
FIV is not always a death sentence, many live out normal lives without any symptoms.
IMHO $800 seems high for a simple amputation and a spread of only $400 makes the proper surgery seem like a no brainer. I am assuming these are the emergency vet's estimates which even for simple care is ridiculously expensive (much like a people ER).
Take them to a local vet and/or a shelter-sponsered vet. I used to support a cat colony and my own vet was very high-end so I would take the strays to a place called
www.paws2help.com it was much much cheaper and the care was adequate.
It's not an emergency vet in that sense, though it isn't his usual, trusted, vet from much farther away. This actually happened Saturday but he was hiding and we couldn't tell how badly he was hurt until Sunday. Even then we had to wait until the vet opened this morning and we've been dealing with it ever since. The soonest they can do the surgery is Wednesday. They've wrapped him in the mean time.
^This.
I work at a vet hospital that would charge roughly double what you were quoted for those procedures. Your cat, can most likely recover from either surgery if it is otherwise healthy. If it has a compound fracture (bone has poked out of the skin) I would recommend amputating. They do fine with three legs.
FIV pre- or post- progression into feline AIDS?
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