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Old December 24th, 2005, 07:01 AM
blue_angelica blue_angelica is offline
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Unhappy Has anyone's cat had chemotherapy? Please help!! Charlie has cancer :(

I posted a while ago about Charlie our 13 year old siamese cat. She is beautiful - so intelligent, gentle and loving, and we love her so much. she is like our baby. Firstly for about 8 weeks, our vets thought she had a virus; she had a runny nose, runny eyes, was sneezing (sometimes with blood) and couldn't breathe very well at all - her breathing was very noisy and laboured.

Then when a protusion was coming from her nose, they diagnosed her with a nasal polyp. They attempted to remove it but within a week her symptoms were back and she couldnt breathe again. the vets said there was nothing they could do but they referred her to a soft tissue specialist (about 1.5hrs drive away). She said she thought it would be unlikely to be a polyp because of her age and the bleeding, and it could be a tumour. she kept her in for two nights for investigations and blood tests. The blood tests only showed slight abnormalities but when they put her under anaesthetic, it revealed she had cancer - a nasal lymphoma. All that time when charlie was so brave she had cancer. It broke our hearts.

we have always said if one of our animals had cancer it would be kinder to say goodbye to them rather than put them through the trauma of chemo. But with it being 23 december when we found out, if we had picked her up then and brought her home, our own vets wouldnt be able to see her, even to put her to sleep because they had all gone home for xmas. we had to make a quick decision as well because the specialists were waiting on the phone to find out whether they should start the chemo. we spoke to our own vet to see what he thought and he agreed we should start the chemo, even if it was just the first dose of a one-a-week-for-four-weeks course. at least it would just bide us some time, and we could spend a bit more time with her.

But now we dont know whether we have made the right decision. we took her to the specialists on 22nd december and now they are saying they we cant bring her home til 26th. she is just so weak and on a drip. we just dont want her to die in there without us, scared and not knowing where her family are. she only had happy memories of her life before this.

When we took er to the specialists we thought they might just have just been able to remove the polyp we thought she had, but we did not expect this.

If anyone has experience having a pet with cancer, or their pet has had chemotherapy, please could you share your experiences? we would be so grateful for any support and help because we love her so much and just want to do the best for her.

Thank you for any help,

Misty, Charlie & family
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Old December 24th, 2005, 07:51 AM
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chico2 chico2 is offline
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Location: Oakville Ontario
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Angelica,first I like to say,I am sorry your Charlie and you have to go through this:sad:
I've had 3 cats with cancer,but none who received chemo,because they were 17(also diabetic),18 and 19 yrs old and suffered other complications.
Had there been the slightest chance anyone of them would have survived chemo I might have attempted it.
Don't kick yourself for trying to prolong Charlies life,she is only 13 and who knows,it might improve her life...you were doing what you think was right for Charlie.
It is always a difficult time,dealing with a sick pet,on the one hand you love them so much,want to hold on,on the other we wonder are we prolonging suffering???
If they could only talk..
I know it's Christmas and a busy time,but I would try to spend as much time with her as I could,the stress of treatments and a strange place would ease, if she could be comforted by family,I am sure:love:
I am hoping for the best for your family and Charlie and know that whatever attempt you make will be out of love for her.
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"The cruelest animal is the Human animal"
3 kitties,Rocky(r.i.p my boy),Chico,Vinnie
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Old December 24th, 2005, 11:03 AM
Lucky Rescue Lucky Rescue is offline
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Posts: 10,287
Oh I"m so sorry...I did think it might be malignant.

I"ve known cats with this type of cancer and it's particularly nasty.

I can't tell you what to do, only what I would do if this were my cat, and I would have her euthanized especially since you say she is already weak.

But that's just my opinion. Someone else may have another one.

Again, so sorry!
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Old December 24th, 2005, 08:29 PM
mycat mycat is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 43
Quote:
Originally Posted by blue_angelica
say goodbye to them rather than put them through the trauma of chemo
I think you may be wrong here. Most vets agree that cat undergoes chemo much better than human.

Actually, the one who gets trauma used to be the pet owner (because of financial issue).

If money is not a problem to you, I recommend go for it. Who knows ? At least, later, you will not feel remorse/repent that you did not try everything you could to save him/her.
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