Positive thoughts coming your way for the whole clowder...
=^..^= Terri, Salome', Siggie the Tomato Vampire, Guinevere, Sammi, Travis,
and 5 furangels: RuthieGirl, Samantha, Arielle, Gareth and Alec =^..^=
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 11:08
AM
Subject: Sad News
Hi Everyone,
I have some sad news to share. First, Mandy's biopsies are
back and she has oral squamous cell carcinoma. The entire back of her
tongue is involved. We are consulting a surgeon, but her prognosis is
very poor, indeed. The surgery would be horrendous (possibly removing
part of her jaw, too), followed by radiation therapy. Even with this
extreme treatment, the recurrance rate for this kind of cancer is very high; I
understand sometimes within just a couple of months. Mandy is a sweet
little girl (Tater Tot's sister) who loves to come visit on her terms, but
does not like being handled. Medicating her and syringe-feeding are
nearly impossible. I'm not sure at this point what we will do or
not do.
Paulie, (the father of Mandy and Tater) is 7 years old and is in renal
failure.
He is feral and although I can capture him when I have to, I would need
to keep him in his own room to get treatment. When he had the corneal
ulcer, it was a much different story and we had a treatment plan and a
projected outcome. For CRF, I can't see imposing that on him just to
keep him a bit longer. He is eating again and seems a bit more like
himself (won't let me pet him!) so we'll just see how he does.
Cosmo has a dislocated ankle and according to the consulting radiologist,
it cannot be splinted. He would need surgery to have the bones fused and
he would then have a stiff leg that he couldn't bend at the wrist. I
have to investigate this more, because we all agree that he is starting to put
more weight on the leg and the bones may actually be fusing in this position
which is not much different than it would be after surgery. Again, not
sure how we will proceed for him. He does not seem to be in any
pain; you can move his leg every which-way and he does not make a peep or try
to pull his paw away. He just obviously favors the leg.
I'm just overwhelmed by all this. It's breaking my heart. Having so
many cats, I knew that a day would likely come when I had several who were ill
all at the same time, and that has certainly happened before. I've not
faced or dealt with so many probably being terminal, though. I suppose
one can never fully prepare for that emotionally.
Thanks for listening, everyone, and please keep my "kids" in your
thoughts.
Love, Julie
"I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the
more entitled it is
to protection by man from the cruelty of man. "
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged
by
the way its animals are treated."
Mohandas Gandhi
(1869-1948)
Paws Come WITH Claws!!!
If you're thinking about
de-clawing your cat, you need to re-think your decision to acquire a pet.
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