My Fair Lady

In the past couple of months, my cat Lady who is 15, has gone downhill a little. She began peeing while sleeping, and I was worried that it was the beginning of her body giving up on itself. Thankfully I talked to a friend who had a cat who lived to be 16, and she told me that it's most likely that the cat's hormones are out of whack, which can cause the muscles around the hole to loosen up, causing leakage.

So I took her to the vet a couple of weeks ago and the vet agreed that that was the case, and put her on pills. I gave her one a day for five days, then one twice a week. The vet said she was a little skinny for her age, about 5.7 lbs., and he put her on special food for senior cats to help her gain weight. Things looked better than expected and I was thrilled.
Last Friday, she had a checkup appointment at the same vet clinic, but with a different vet as the one before was on vacation. This one weighed her, and she had gone down in weight a little instead of gaining. She checked Lady's body and said she could feel a lump near her bladder. Her initial thought was that it was a bladder stone. She had an x-ray done on Lady, which Lady absolutely hated, and it turns out she has two lumps. One is near her bladder, and another small one near her ribs/chest area. They weren't causing her pain, but it was the lump near the bladder that was causing her to pee while sleeping.

The vet suggested that surgery might be the best bet to get rid of them. I am strongly against it. Lady is 15, which in cat years is 76. She has lived a long, comfortable and happy life. She's currently not in pain, and we can help her with the peeing problem. I'm not going to force her through surgery to get rid of the lumps if they aren't hurting her. Just driving to the vet made her so scared she peed in her carrier on the way there and back home. She cried the entire car ride. I don't want to put her through anymore stress than necessary. I'd rather her die in peace at home than live her life out with stitches or during surgery.

When my Mom was about 16 or 17, she got a miniature Doberman which she named Pedro. She had him until she was about 22. Pedro ended up having cancer, and Mom took him through multiple surgeries to get rid of the tumors, and she said she regretted doing it now, as Pedro was in a lot of pain recovering, and all the tumors came back plus more. When she was 22, she said his body felt like a bag of marbles as it was so full of tumors. She made the decision to put Pedro down, and my grandfather on my Dad's side was the one who took him in and had him put to sleep. My Mom is also strongly against us putting Lady through surgery.

The vet agreed with me and said the best we can do is make sure she's comfortable, and gains weight. So now Lady is taking probiotics once a day, and we are feeding her beef, chicken, fish and other things to help her gain weight, as per the vet.

Do any of you have any senior pets, and have any of them gone through the same thing? I've had Lady since I was seven. My Mom got her for me a month after my Papa died. She's my baby.