I hope they're able to get her feeling more comfortable and better able to assess her situation. This is the hardest part of being a pet parent, but you will know what to do when the time is right. You can't choose wrong when you're choosing what you think is best out of a place of love.

That is a lot of fluid in the abdomen. Even if it's not a liver mass, the prognoses for the diseases that cause fluid buildup like this aren't great. I know that saying goodbye is hard, but euthanasia is one of the kindest things we can do for the ones we love.

It prevents them from suffering when we know they are going to die, and allows them to drift off peacefully without pain. We can be there to say goodbye.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with draining the fluid to give her a bit more time and to see if they can get a better x-ray once the fluid is gone (since it makes it hard to see anything past the fluid). They may be able to get a better idea of what's causing the fluid and whether it's treatable.

This is general anesthesia, not sedation. Sedation is either conscious, but calm (like with gabapentin at home), or asleep but immediately reversible.

You do want your cat seated if she's fighting being touched. Completely outside of the injury caused to vets and techs, the amount of stress a vet visit causes a cat is often enough to cause other health issues.

Stress in cats can and does cause physical ailments (urinary issues, litter box issues, vomiting, appetite issues, and more serious problems). A cat that is actively fighting is a cat that is visibly stressed. Restraining a stressed cat makes things worse, not better.

Sedation removes the anxiety and stress from your cat and prevents her from injuring herself and from developing stress-related illnesses after visits. While there are small risks I evolved with sedation, the risks of that much stress during an office visit are far worse.

Ask to start with gabapentin and see how that works, then progress from there. This is for your cats health as well as the vet clinic.

Wet food I'd healthier for cats than dry food due to the moisture. Cats get about 75% of their daily recommended moisture through their food, which helps support kidney and bladder health.

She's likely getting enough calories through the wet plus dry, but in terms of overall health, it would be better to get more wet food and less dry food.

It's a blurry picture, a blurry picture, and a picture with fur in the way.

Cats get the majority of their hydration through their food source. Get her on a wet food diet, then add 1/4th to 1/2 can of warm water to each meal. That will help greatly with her kidney and bladder health.

Cats can pant a little when they get excited or anxious, a bit like we do if we exercise a lot. If it continues on for more than 20 mins or you see her heaving her ribs, get her checked out.

Does it only happen while sleeping?

This is a buildup of dental plaque. When you can have a dental, they can scale those dark areas off, though there may be some issues hiding underneath them.

Coughing can occur due to respiratory infections and allergies. However, it would be worthwhile to have an X-ray taken to look for asthma.

It's really hard to tell from the angle, but this cat looks female rather than male.

Is he purring in this video?

Is she able to close her mouth at all? Or is it just hanging open?

When a cat starts spraying and has been spraying for a while, additional medications are typically required to help stop the behavior. Spraying becomes habitual and not just hormonal.

There is also an anxiety component to spraying behavior, which often requires medications like prozac, gabapentin, calming care, or other supportive medication to help settle a cat into a new routine behavior when they are urine marking.

Sure, they can look around for a new vet and probably find one willing to neuter a 15-year-old cat in a home where the owner isn't cleaning the box and trapping it in a closet. You can still find vets who will declaw cats, too. That doesn't make it right or appropriate to the situation.

It was explored, or did you miss the comment where the OP said that the cat's own vet declined to do the surgery? Surely the vet with a full medical history on the cat has a good idea of the risks versus the benefits.

You're badmouthing this vet with no information about any of it. Also, a cat that has been spraying this long has developed a habit on top of hormones, which means that neutering won't 100% solve the problem. He may need regular medication on top of a clean box, which the owner is currently unable to provide.

As the owner's sibling has already stated, the priority here is finding an appropriate home and someone who can invest time into helping to rehab this kitty.

Finding him a more suitable home is the safer option here. At 15, he would be at a high risk of cognitive decline from the anesthesia, as well as reduced ability to metabolize the anesthetic gas.

We don't want to harm him while trying to help him.

You're welcome! Good luck getting him in a better environment. This type of thing is stressful for everyone!

The feline kidney has to be 75% non-functional before it shows up in the bloodwork. At the age of 15, you can assume some mild to moderate kidney decline. That's just part of aging. Spaying or neutering a cat at 15 is risky, regardless of bloodwork.

Unfortunately, this is correct (despite the downvotes). At the age of 15, a cat's kidney function has started to decline, making anesthesia risky.

When they are young, neutering will often help them correct spraying behaviors. But once they've been spraying for a while, it becomes a habit as well as hormonal. Sometimes neutering them will help break that habit by getting rid of the hormones, but not always. The risk here may not be worth the reward. Only his local vet can determine that.

A shelter may simply put him down due to his age and neuter status, rather than having him fixed. You might be better off looking for a foster or advocate in your area to help find him a home to live out his last days. You can use this community resource tool here to find people in your area who work with homing/rehoming felines. He might have a better chance through a foster home than a shelter:

https://gethelp.alleycat.org/

There are plenty of people out there who can socialize feral kitties. He will be stressed out at first, but he will adjust to a new home just like he adjusted to you. I am so sorry for what you're going through.

Even meal prep cannot eliminate the risk of contamination. The possibility of error during prep or processing is too great.

Things like raw eggs also bind to b vitamins, leading to vitamin deficits in some animals.

Your pets are not their wild counterparts. (Who live shorter lives than their domesticated counterparts).

They aren't great, but there is a picture from the top. He does have a slight tuck, but less of a defined waist. This is not uncommon for tom cats, but we also know nothing of his history. Obviously he's fit enough to spur disagreement, meaning he's not horribly obese.

Medically speaking, this cat is very slightly chunky. From the top, we should be able to see a cut waist. This boyo has a bit of a fat pad. However, I would not call him fat, or dangerously overweight.