Well, we had 5 wonderful months that were symptom free but the tumor in his nasal passage is back. Tiger started breathing with that rumbly sound last week (that was the first indicator last May that something was wrong with him). The last time this happened, it took at least a month to progress from the rumbly sounds to the snuffly gaspy state he was in shortly before we took him in for surgery but this time it's only been a week. When the rumbly sounds started I thought "okay, it's coming back, I have some time to try and figure out what we're going to do" but by yesterday he sounded TERRIBLE!! It hasn't progressed to the worst state that he was in 5 months ago but I'm shocked by how fast it is progressing and I think within another week he may sound as bad as he ever did.
It's so frustrating because his spirit is as playful as ever and he looks great and his appetite is very good. I knew this was not going to go over to well with my husband but after a few days of thinking to myself and trying to plan it all out, I told him that I wanted to have the surgery done again to give us another half year with him. He loves Tiger too but it's the worst time possible because we are about to list our house for sale because of financial issues. But, he loves Tiger and we're going for it.
Also, Catty1, this time around we are going to see if we can have cryosurgery done in conjunction with the tumor removal as you suggested last July. I just didn't think we could afford to do it last time but now that I know that removing the tumor only buys him 5-6 months before it comes back, it makes sense that we do as much as we can because I'm fairly certain this will be the last attempt to help him surgically. It's not fair to him to keep putting him through this and it is fairly expensive. But I must say, he was such a trooper about the surgery last time and within minutes of waking up he could breathe so well and was very happy and frisky when we got home from the clinic.
I'm taking him to the same vet that did the tumor removal surgery the last time. I do the work on their animal hospital website and we now have an arrangement where I receive a staff discount on services instead of being paid for the work. The surgery will be around 800.00 and he still has to get back to me with the cost of the cryosurgery. He doesn't have the equipment to do the cryosurgery but he's going to try and get it from the (human) hospital over the next week or so. Unfortunately, the soonest he can get us in is Jan.14th and I'm praying that Tiger will make it until then. I've got him back on the prednisilone because it helped him breathe the last time around. He's on 2.5mg twice a day and I will continue to up the dose gradually as he needs it.
Could you guys please pray that Tiger will be able to breathe well enough until the 14th? I truly believe in the power of prayer and he needs help. Thank you!!
I'm also worried about my cat Paddington. Why does all this stuff always happen at the same time?!? Last time we were dealing with Tiger, we also found that Charlie had cancer.
Out of nowhere, Paddy now has a small smooth dark brown/black spot (about the size of a sunflower seed, maybe smaller)on an area above his left eye, sort of on his forehead. I'm so worried that it could be some form of cancer but maybe it's just an age spot. Do cat's get these?? I will post a picture of Paddy's strange spot in a separate thread.
