Halo - Fibrosarcoma from microchip? Update #71

[kuhio98]

Oh my goodness!

I am so very sorry you and Halo are going through all this! We try so hard to do what is right for our pets. To have something backfire like this, backfire BIG TIME, it just terrible.

Hugs for you, and gentle chin rubs for Halo.

Yes, it has backfired big time on sweet Halo.
Bobcat has delivered your chin rubs. He said that Halo is snoozing away a rainy day in her "sewer pipe"

[kuhio98]

I'm so sorry to hear this. All of my cats have been microchipped as well as my two new kittens. They actually all came that way except for Storm which I had done several years later. I'm sorry that you've stopped posting on PT. I hope that you'll decide to come back. Lots of prayers and positive thoughts are being sent Halo's way. Please take care. (((HUGS)))

I'm glad all your babies are doing well.
Halo is the only one of our 5 that didn't come already chipped.
We felt we were doing the right thing. I still think the benefits of chipping far outweigh the the risk for most pets.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.

[kuhio98]

I am sending prayers and good thoughts Halo's way. It is stories like yours, and I've heard a few of them, that have made me shy away from vaccinations and microchips. They are both good things, but not worth cancer. My heart goes out to your family.

Halo had bad reactions to the innoculations, so we stopped those years ago. Our vet told us that rabies is the only one required by law. But, to NEVER get the 3-year rabies shot as it has caused fibrosarcoma. He told us that's why the 3-year shot is usually given in the back leg because the leg can be cut off if cancer develops. So, we made sure he never got the 3-year shot.

But, we felt we were doing the right thing by getting her chipped.
We have chipped 20 cats since we lost Kuhio. Halo is the ONLY one who has had any problems. We still believe that chipping is the right thing to do.

[mysweetscotty]

Oh Lisa, so sorry to hear about Halo! I know exactly what you are going through, me little 6 year old Yorkie had cancer, the tumor they removed from between his shoulder blades also contained the microchip....we had to send him on to the big dog park in the sky on May 27, just covered with tumors.
We tried treatments and chemo but they made him so sick we stopped .....trying to help him live longer but so sick would have been for us, not him. We miss our sweet boy so much!
I belong to a small group of pet owners whose pet also experienced cancer after microchipping....and the chip makers ought to be ashamed of themselves, they still maintain that these chips are completely safe!
We will have a web site up and running in the next week or so where pet owners can report/register adverse reactions in their pets from microchips...please check it out at www.chipmenot.com
Again, so sorry about Halo....we need to be strong and loud in our objections to chips!

[katladyd]

Most pets have no problem with microchips, but when they do....the problems are severe! My boyfriend's little girl kitty, Mau Mau, has a chip and I have showed him this thread. He said she has had no problems with it, so he will leave it in. He has decided not to microchip his other cat, Buddy, though. I hope Halo has no further problems and the worst is over. Sending good thoughts and prayers Halo's way.

[mysweetscotty]

Hi Katlady! Please just watch the spot where the chip was implanted...any signs of a bump should send Mau Mau straight to the vet!

[jenluckenbach]

I am so sorry to hear of this.

Please do not be so hard on yourselves. I believe that ALL (repeat.... ALL) things in life come with the possibilities of consequesnces. If you knew going in to the chipping procedure that it had a .05 % chance (just a random number here people, not a hard fact) of causing cancer, would you not take a 99.05 % chance that the chip would HELP to return her to you if lost?? Not everything is a guarrentee.

Rutherford had gotten a fibrosarcoma at a vaccination injection site, and it eventually cost him his life.....but I do not stop giving vaccines!! The diseases those vaccines prevent are much more commonplace than the cancer that he grew. On the reverse side, if Rutherford would have dies from panleukopenia or rabies I would be kicking myself for not doing my part in getting him the proper preventative measure.

I sure hope all that made sense, because I do not wish to take away from Halo's sickness.....I just hate to see you blaming yourself for things that just happen sometimes.

Best of luck with dear Halo.

[mysweetscotty]

Just curious, did Rutherford have a chip? If so, the chip rather an the vaccines may be the culprit. W believe that many pet owners do not realize that the chip is the problem, not the vaccine injection site....
And now that I've watched my Scotty boy die of cancer, you bet that miniscule % of 'what might happen' would stop me from chipping again. There are other ways to identify your pet including a tatoo! We've heard of pets being euthanized because the chip reader would not scan the chip....if anyone bothered to check and see if there is a chip!
Pet owners, like me, go into this blindly, believing what the chip mfgs say on their sites about the chip being 100% safe....wish I'd done my homework, if I had just googled pet chip cancer I never would have chipped Scotty....there are a lot of cases out there!

[katladyd]

Hi Katlady! Please just watch the spot where the chip was implanted...any signs of a bump should send Mau Mau straight to the vet!

Trust me, we are. What everyone is saying about the good outweighing the bad is true. If Mau Mau got lost and was never returned to us because she wasn't chipped, we would feel bad about that. Our cats are NEVER outdoors, they all strongly prefer to be indoors, so the chip debate is a moot point with us. Mau Mau came with the chip and just the address was changed. She seems well and happy, so for now, we leave it alone.

[kuhio98]

Oh Lisa, so sorry to hear about Halo! I know exactly what you are going through, me little 6 year old Yorkie had cancer, the tumor they removed from between his shoulder blades also contained the microchip....we had to send him on to the big dog park in the sky on May 27, just covered with tumors.
We tried treatments and chemo but they made him so sick we stopped .....trying to help him live longer but so sick would have been for us, not him. We miss our sweet boy so much!
I belong to a small group of pet owners whose pet also experienced cancer after microchipping....and the chip makers ought to be ashamed of themselves, they still maintain that these chips are completely safe!
We will have a web site up and running in the next week or so where pet owners can report/register adverse reactions in their pets from microchips...please check it out at www.chipmenot.com
Again, so sorry about Halo....we need to be strong and loud in our objections to chips!

Thank you. I will definitely check out the site.
From what we're learning, a very small percentage of pets who are chipped have problems. Unfortunately, for those who do develop fibrosarcoma, the prognosis isn't good.

If I had to do it all over again, and given the same circumstances, I probably would chip again. Of the 20+ kitties we've been involved in chipping in the last 8 years -- and we're still in contact with them -- Halo is the only one who has had a problem.

Someone "up there" is playing a cruel joke on us.

[Catlady711]

Just curious, did Rutherford have a chip? If so, the chip rather an the vaccines may be the culprit. W believe that many pet owners do not realize that the chip is the problem, not the vaccine injection site....

A microchip is implanted between the shoulder blades, vaccines are (or should be) given in the scruff of the neck, or a back leg. A microchip implant site and a vaccine injection site should never be in the same place if it's done right.

Pet owners, like me, go into this blindly, believing what the chip mfgs say on their sites about the chip being 100% safe

Halo had bad reactions to the innoculations, so we stopped those years ago. Our vet told us that rabies is the only one required by law. But, to NEVER get the 3-year rabies shot as it has caused fibrosarcoma. He told us that's why the 3-year shot is usually given in the back leg because the leg can be cut off if cancer develops. So, we made sure he never got the 3-year shot.

I don't have time to look up the study right now but there was a study that showed that ANY injection, including antibiotics, or even giving fluids under the skin can have a miniscule chance of causing cancer at the injection site.

Some vaccines may be more likely to produce an allergic reaction, but there shouldn't be any difference between a 1 or 3 year Rabies vaccine as far as odds of cancer goes.

we felt we were doing the right thing by getting her chipped. We have chipped 20 cats since we lost Kuhio. Halo is the ONLY one who has had any problems. We still believe that chipping is the right thing to do.

It is and I'm glad that this whole sad adventure hasn't caused you to stop doing what's right. As it was said above, there is a far greater risk of losing your pet, or having your pet contract a disease than the odds of your pet getting cancer from an injection. My thoughts are with you concerning Halo.

[Karen]

There is an alternative to chipping - there is tattooing. I'm gonna talk about it on the radio today, I'll come back with more info later. Prayers still for Halo's recovery.

[kuhio98]

There is an alternative to chipping - there is tattooing. I'm gonna talk about it on the radio today, I'll come back with more info later. Prayers still for Halo's recovery.

Tattooing does sound lik a good alternative -- of course if we had done that -- knowing Halo's luck, she woul have been allergic to the dye. She really is a medical mystery kitty.

Are there websites where you register the tattoo like you do chips?

[Cuddles mom]

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.

[kuhio98]

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. 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. 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

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.