Grizzley’s Ultrasound

The result of ultrasound added more concerns about intestinal lymphoma, but it could still be the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The only way to know for sure is to do a biopsy. Because we are treating him as having the IBD, he’s on prednisone. But according to the vet, prednisone is also used for treating lymphoma as well. The ultrasound also shows an early signs of chronic renal failure, but the vet assured me it’s common for any 14 year old cat.

I don’t know what to think yet. I have to decide on what I should do IF it really is cancer before doing the biopsy since if I don’t opt for the chemo, there is no point in doing the biopsy at all, and it’s about $1,200. I’d be putting about $2,000 on my credit card for Grizzley’s treatment up to today, so if I don’t have to, I definitely don’t want to have the biopsy done.

It seems there are two different opinions on having a cat (or dog) subject to chemo therapy. One is that chemo on cats is vastly different from that on people; it’s not painful and cats don’t go through the same hardship as people on chemo since its goal is remission, not cure. The other opinion is that how do we know if it’s not painful and not hard on them, we all know they tend to hide pain (I know full well Griz hide it very well), and people with no signs of cancer after going through a chemo are said to be in remission, not cured.

I haven’t talked to “my” vet yet, I only talked to the other vet. So I still want to talk to her about it. If I decide to go ahead with biopsy, she would be the one performing the procedure.

I’ll be picking him up today anyway, and I have some time to think about it and do some research on it. Please comment with your thoughts/opinions/experiences about it. I’d really appreciate it.