Julie - my heart goes out to you. Sending lots of prayers, good wishes and
positive vibes. Thinking of you -
Gloria
At 08:21 PM 9/6/2005, you wrote:
Julie,
I'm sorry for all you are going through right now. It really gets tough
as your cats start to age. I'm dealing with some of that now with my
crew. You just have to do the best you can knowing each cat as well as
you do. You are all in my thoughts and prayers.
tonya
Julie Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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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