my response is too long- so I split in two- didn't want Adrienne to have to
wait on moderator approval. Sorry. 1st of 2 responses from me.
Adrienne:I'm sorry about the diagnosis. I have been through this myself. This
is a very personal decision you have to make. I can't tell you what to do, jut
my experience. My beloved Monkee was diagnosed with lymphosarcoma in April
2007. He was also a Felv+ cat (I had had him tested 3 times). He lived 4 years
with me as the picture of health until I found the lump on his leg in March.
He was my only cat and in short, I worshipped him. I'd lived for 4 years in
fear of felv raising it's ugly head and actually started to think he was maybe
a mere "carrier" and it would never claim him. I was desperate to save him and
fight the good fight. Chemo was recommended and we began it immediately. It
was very very very expensive and very hard on him. He hated it. He knew when
we turned into the vet specialists clinic parking lot, even tho he was in his
carrier and couldn't see-- he knew the last turn- could sense it. The problem
with the chemo for a felv+ cat is manyfold: it stresses them out- which any
added stress for a felv+ cat, whether symptomatic or not, is bad; chemo works
by not only killing the bad cells, but the good ones too-- which will take a
felv+ cat down even further than one that is felv-; also, what the doctor
doesn't always tell you is that once they start the chemo, they have to monitor
the white blood cell level. If the wbc count is too low, they can't admin
chemo anyway. With Monkee, he had one chemo treatment and then we couldn't do
another one for weeks (even tho the protocol he was to be on was once a week),
b/c his wbc was so low and the vet couldn't tell if that was due to an
infection (unlikely), the felv attacking his body (maybe), or the chemo itself
killing off white blood cells (most likely). Monkee only had a few chemo
treatments and the tumor on his leg didn't shrink- in fact, it grew. Either
his leukemia was full blown by the time we even discovered the tumor, or the
chemo itself hastened the leukemia's progress. That is one of the main risks
with chemo that you have to consider. It can definitely have the opposite
effect that you would want in that it can take the felv+ cat down so far by
killing off the "good" cells remaining in your cats body-- white blood cells to
fight infections AND red blood cells (if your cat is not yet anemic (low
RBCs)), I can bet you that the chemo treatment itself will make the cat anemic
due to killing off the RBCs. On that note, has the vet done a blood panel yet?
I would ask for one now before you make a decision and find out what the RBC
and WBC count is, among other things. You need to keep in mind that
lymphosarcoma/lymphoma is the number 1 form of cancer that develops in domestic
cats (felv and non felv) and dogs. I believe the vet profession automatically
recommends chemo b/c of this type of cancer's prevalence in domestic cats and
dogs, however, that doesn't mean that chemo should be the "treatment of choice"
for an felv+ cat-- whereby the nature of the disease itself is an
immunosuppressive disorder, and when it becomes "active"-- typically manifests
itself as severe and life-threatening anemia. It seems a counter-intuitive
treatment.
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