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Oh, I am in tears. Reading how you told her the choice was hers.
Sorry about the nightmare. I would have been crying too!
Well, I do hope that when it is Halo's time that she goes peacefully. I'm sure she knows how much you love her. And that's why she may wait until you are not home. She doesn't want to hurt you.
Ok, I need to go remove the lump in my throat. :(
Hello, my cat, Cuddles was just diagnosed with a microchip induced fibrosarcoma yesterday. Last week he had surgery to remove a suspicious lump, and inside of it was the microchip. Yesterday we got the toxicology results. My vet has never seen this. Can you tell me how long Halo lived after first diagnosis and how many surgeries you did? I don't think I can put Cuddles through another surgery like that. He did real well the first time, but seeing Halo's results of the 2nd surgery, I think we're done.
Poor Cuddles has really had a rough time. He was the first cat in FL affected by the pet food recall and spent 2 weeks in ICU flushing out his kidneys. More than once we were told to "pull the plug", but we felt he had more fight in him. That was back in 2007, so obviously, he rallied, but I don't know how much more to put him through. Any advice would be appreciated.
Cuddles Mom ~ I'm so sorry your baby has been diagnosed with fibrosarcoma. I'll tell you about Halo's experience but please, please keep in mind. Halo was sickly her whole life. Our vet called her his "medical mystery kitty". There was always something really wrong with her immune system. 5 years ago she had a golf-ball size fatty tumor on her liver. Our vet advised us to wait and see. It shrunk on its own -- without any treatment -- then would swell up again. It never seemed to cause her problems. I'm just telling you all this so you you understand that Halo always had health problems. If Cuddles has been a healthy kitty, his outcome may be much more hopeful. So, here goes...
We found a huge, hard lump between Halo's shoulder blades one day. Halo didn't like to be cuddled too much, so we aren't sure if the lump had been there for a few days or not. This was in May 2010.
The biopsy confirmed that it was fibrosarcoma. While the tumor was very large, the vet said surgery was her only hope. He advised that fibrosarcoma comes back 30% to 70% of the time. Because you can cut out everything you can see but at the microscopic level, there are still "roots" in the tissue.
The surgery was very traumatic because the tumor was so large. The vet advised us to keep Halo crated because she would not feel like moving around much. Well, Halo hated cages/crates. She would throw herself against the sides trying to get out so we knew that we couldn't do that or she would injure herself. So, we put up a child gate across part of our bedroom and put her bed, litter, food, etc. in there. When we placed her in there, she leapt over the gate and ran down 2 flights to stairs, and ran out the cat door! She ran like a crab but she moved!
She recovered fairly quickly after the surgery. She played like a kitten again. She attacked my toes. :D She chased her tail. We prayed that the surgery had been successful.
June 2010 was a wonderful month. In July, the cancer was back. The vet thought there was an excellent chance to get the cancer again, so we scheduled the surgery for the 13th of July.
Halo did not recover very quickly this time. It seemed to make more out of her. But, she felt well enough to go outside in the pen, lay in the sun, stalk birds, etc.
About 3 weeks later, we found multiple lumps at the incision site. :( Back to the vet where the vet told us he did not recommend more surgery. The cancer was back with a vengeance. He told us to take her home and love her. Eventually she would lose her appetite and stop eating and drinking (that never happened!) and we would know that it was time to have her put to sleep.
August 2010 was sad but Halo still got around. She slept a lot but was still her sweet self. Once I brought home Chicken McNuggets and she attacked me to get them. :D She would eat anything and everything you put in front of her.
September 2010 Halo's world was our bed. We placed steps so she could get up and down (she could no longer jump up or down from the bed), but she didn't move much. We put her food and litter and everything up there so she wouldn't have to go far.
We consulted a pet psychic who told us that Halo did not want to pass away while I was home. I was due to go to work in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska on September 9th. I sat with her for a long time before I left and we said our goodbyes. I told her that she was free to go whenever she wanted. :( We could tell that Halo didn't feel well, but she wasn't in any pain and the girl was still eating like a horse. But, by the 13th, my husband felt she was uncomfortable and he took her to the vet to have her put to sleep.
He still hasn't really been able to talk about it. And, I've tried not to ask him questions that make him relive it. It was hard for him to do, but he couldn't have our baby in pain.
Cuddles has proven himself to be a fighter and I'm praying very hard that he will beat this awful cancer. Halo was not a fighter. She would just go limp and pee on me in fright when she had to go to the vet.
If you think it would help, I would be happy to PM you the name, address, phone, e-mail etc. of our vet if yours wants to talk to him about it.
Lisa
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuddles mom
I wish Id found this site first. The tumor on my baby's shoulders is twice the size of his head. Two weeks ago we saw our second vet and he has the pain patch & prednisone for inflammation. The lump is growing so fast! From the size of a grape the beginning of March to egg sized by the 20th. It seems to grow in spurts, now he can hardly walk-I guess it is pressing on the nerves, but he doesn't seem to be in any pain really. When it first got as big as his head he started scratching it and made a sore on his head, but since the pain patch he doesn't scratch it anymore and the sore is healed.
I don't want my baby to suffer, but I can't stand the thought of putting him to sleep. Does anyone know what will happen if I just "watch and wait"??? I don't want him to suffer at all- I can't talk about what he means to me-I can't stop crying when I do and I want to keep typing. He is still my Mr Bill, follows all his routines, meets me at the bathroom door in the morning (today he was almost dragging his hind end) and purring his "Good Morning Mommy" greeting that he has given me his whole life. He is 12yrs old and only wants to sleep with me in winter. He is still eating and drinking but looking at him I see he is not as happy as he was yesterday and he is getting frustrated that he can't move. I'm afraid the tumor with smother him or something in the middle of the night and I won't be able to help, but I'm afraid to put him to sleep while he is himself. I know that no one can make my decision for me but any advice, comment, knowledge, experience, may help.
I'm so sorry your baby is sick. Halo's tumor never was as large as Mr. Bill's, but that's probably because she had 2 surgeries to reduce the size. The vet said it was her only hope -- pretty much a slim to none chance -- but miracles can happen and he always called Halo his "Medical Mystery Kitty". :)
Every kitty is different, but Halo did not have a strong, determined, fighter kind of personality. She had a calm, accepting, kind of resigned personality. So, if Mr. Bill is a fighter, you might consider reducing the size of the tumor to give him more time -- if your vet recommends it.
Like Mr. Bill, Halo's tumor grew rapidly. It's like it erupted one day and it was probably too late by the time we found it. :( The vet said that Halo would stop eating and that would be our sign that she was ready to go. She never lost her appetite, but she huddled on the bed in a big, ball of misery her last few days. She never lost her loving, gentle spirit, but she prefered to be left alone. It appeared to us that she was no longer enjoying life so we had to make the awful decision that no loving parent wants to face.
I am praying that Mr. Bill enjoys the rest of his life. Sweet, precious soul. I am lighting a candle for you and for Mr. Bill.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Djadewolff
As Lisa knows, I, too, had a cat - Moraganna - who developed fibrosarcoma from the 3-year rabies shot. I've been told that fibrosarcoma is a rapidly spreading disease, so it's no surprise that Mr. Bill's has grown so quickly. Did you consider having it removed early on? Morganna had hers removed for a biopsy. When it the results showed fibrosarcoma, the vet removed part of her (hind) leg. She was ok for about a year, when the tumor returned; more of the leg was removed, and she was "clean" for nearly two years after that. But when the tumor came back the third time and started bleeding - and Morganna developed a URI because of the prednisone - I knew it was time.
I'm so sorry you're suffering this; I remember the anguish well. Let your heart guide you; it will know when Mr. Bill has had enough.
:eek: I never connected what happened to Boo to the microchip and we never ran any tests on the tumors the vet removed off of her (my choice, not his). I think we did her first surgery in May 2011 when he removed the tumor in her ear and the ones under her skin under her ear (3 of them,BB size), The one in her ear grew back in a few months and when I took her back for her recheck after that surgery, everything was fine, that was around the first of August (I think) but in about 3 weeks she had a really big growth under that ear. By the end of October, I knew it was time to let her go when the texture of it completely changed overnight and although we had her on antibiotics, I could see infection had set in. The growth was big, all the fur fell off, it began to open and drain and keeping her from scratcning it was not a easy job...even with a collar. I took as good a care of that open tumor as I could, made sure it was cleaned GOOD, several times a day and the vet was impressed with the ideas I came up with to keep it covered. She ate good, was jumping up on top of the fridge and acted totally normal but her quality of life was sad. I realize now that what she had was fibrosarcoma because it was very aggresive.
Funny but when I started reading this thread I did it out of interest... By the time I got to the last page, THAT'S when it hit me that this the kind of tumor Boo had and most likely the chip, the cause..