Hi Jamie,
I'm sorry to hear about Andy being so sick. It is true that cats do
much better than people with chemo. I lost my Buddie to liver cancer
last July, we had a very good year after diagnosis with chemo and follow
up treatment.
First is the diagnosis of the actual type of cancer every cancer is
treated differently. There is small cell cancer which is slower growing
but generally the patients don't go into remission as long, this is what
Buddie had. Then there is large cell cancer, many lymphoma's fall under
this catagory, it is a much more agressive, faster growing cancer and
must be treated quickly and agressively. I am on several cancer lists
because of Buddie, I still am on them to try and help others.
The list that would probably do you the most good is the feline-lymphoma
list
( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/feline_lymphoma ),
there is one girl and her kitty that have been battleing lymphoma and
her Samba is FeLV positive, he is 14 months or so post diagnosis and
doing very well, I think he is around 4 or 5 years of age. Her name is
Stacey and she is in the midwest. She joined the list just after I
did. Her and Samba have had a few close calls but he is doing very well
now. Here is the list address if you think you may be interested.
Another very knowledgeable person on the list is Theresa, she just lost
her Jean-Luc after two years of battling the very agressive lymphoma,
along with CRF and non regenerative anemia for which he was taking
epogen for two years (without it he wouldn't have made it that long).
Seeing or at the very least consulting with an internist or oncologist
is a priority once the type of cancer is diagnosed, unless your vet is
very knowledgeable and experienced in dealing with cancer. Buddie was
diagnosed first by bloodwork being suspicious and her Xray showed her
liver slightly enlarged. We then did an ultra sound and biopsy of her
liver which my vet was sure was going to show she had cholangial
hepatitis but we actually got cancer of the liver with possible
pancreaus and spleen involvment as the diagnosis. Her cancer was the
small cell slower growing kind, so her treament was 4 weeks of chemo,
followed by indefinate oral chemo given at home every third day along
with prednisolone.
I stopped the chemo after 3 weeks because Buddie who absolutely hated to
be handled decided to stop eating so we decided to do just the
prednisolone (I wish now that I had finished the chemo and done the oral
chemo, I really believe Buddie may have been here longer, but as they
say hindsight is 20-20, I will not stop chemo if I ever have to go
through it again, atleast not for that reason). She got sepsis (system
wide infection) after about 7 months and the vet really didn't think she
was going to make it, but she did and we had another 5 months of quality
time. She was 13 on July 3rd and I lost her July 30th.
It is imperative to find out what kind of cancer if you are even
thinking about treating because some cancers can literaly spread and
kill within days or weeks since cats hide illness so well they are
usually pretty sick before we see it.
My prayers for Andy and your family in whatever decision you all make.
--
Belinda
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