My wife and I got a kitten a few years ago - Suki. We then got her a companion - Jess, and a year later we got our little dog Buddy.

Last week Buddy was booked in for his castration on the Tuesday. The Monday evening we noticed Suki was not her usual self. She seemed a bit lethargic but still purred when stroked e.t.c. On Tuesday morning she was laid in the bathroom sink and we noticed she had a really foul smelling drool. It was time to take Buddy to the vets so we decided we would ask and get her booked in. It's fair to say until this point our focus really had been on Buddy and getting him through his operation.

I kept thinking Suki must have a bad tooth or adcess or something in her mouth as she wouldn't let me look but, when we got to the vets with her the vet examined her and said "She's a very poorly cat."

He said she's got a toxic smell to her breathe. It could be her kidneys... So now we were really worrying. He said she needed to go to their other surgery, have blood tests done and be on a drip. We then enquired how much treatment would be and were told blood tests £50, drip overnight £200 and she needed to go now.

I'm already in debt and I lost my full time job in Septmber 2013 and went full time. Things have been a struggle at times moneywise and one of the things we had cancelled was insurance on the cats. I quickly realised we were going to struggle to pay this. After paying out for Buddy's castration the same day too.

We took her down to the other surgery and said we needed a chat. All we really knew at this stage was she was poorly, they would do blood tests and put her on a drip. We didn't know if she would be ok after this or if she would need more treatment or what the actual diagnosis was. The 2nd vet looked on the computer and said 1st vet suspects Renal failure. She also said that the blood tests and drip were just the start and he had actually listed other treatments as well. She then said there was no guarentee this would make Suki better and that she 'didn't look very good' and that the other option was euthenisation

We didn't know what to do. I knew we didn't have the money for treatment but if there was a chance she would be ok I would find a way to get her better. I knew I could sell a few things to raise some money quickly but if the treatment went into £1000's I would really be struggling.

In the end I kind of feel the 2nd vet lead us towards having Suki put to sleep and that this was the right choice.

I just feel that Suki was put to sleep because I'm poor at the minute and that if we had paid for the treatment she would have been ok. I feel terrible about the whole thing. I should have noticed she wasnt right sooner. I should have had the insurance on them still. I should have sold some stuff to at least give her the chance of getting better. She was only 3

I really don't think we made the right decision despite all the people I know saying we did. Would the Vet have put her to sleep if they thought there was a good chance of her being ok or would they only do it if it was more likely she wouldn't make it anyway?