Halo - Fibrosarcoma from microchip? Update #71

[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.