And I have a scratch on my right thumb around the nail bed, that looks like a razor cut, made by Grizzley’s tooth, and a scratch on my right wrist by his nails. I’ve forgotten what a pain it is to pill a cat, not to mention how to do it period. Grizzley had always been somewhat easy to pill compared to Thanta (RIP), but after getting used to the easy routines of pilling Brandy everyday (and before that pilling Georiga everyday), he presented himself to be a tough customer.
When I went to pick him up yesterday, my vet told me that prednisone is working, he ate ravenously, and even groomed himself. When he was brought out, I could see he did feel much better than the day before – he voiced his objections on having been in the hospital out loud. I should take him in 2 weeks to do a round of tests. The vet is very optimistic that it’s not cancer since Grizzley’s responding too well for it to be cancer. I’ve decided not to go for chemo on him even if it is cancer. The vet also agreed that gastrointestinal cancers are very unresponsive to chemo, which made it much easier for me to decide chemo or not. So even if his condition regresses after reducing prednisone dosage, I’d opt not to have biopsy done unless the vet gives me another compelling reason to have it done anyway.
I was kinda bummed yesterday after learning about the ultrasound result, and cried a couple of times – had to stay in the bathroom for a while because it’s not such a good thing to cry at work so much. But now, I feel better about it since Grizzley seems to be really happy about being back home and able to terrorize the dogs again.
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.
Thank you everybody for praying for his recovery. According to the vet (not the vet I like, she’s off today), he didn’t vomit today. And the vet took Griz off IV. Griz didn’t have bowel movements, so I have no idea about the quality of his poop. But the vet says Griz most likely could come home tomorrow. The ultrasound is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Please keep your fingers/paws crossed just a little longer.
Today, they brought him into a room instead of letting me see him in his cage in the back. So today I was able to pick him up and hold him while he purred up the storm, trying, at the same time, to explore the room, the attempt he abandoned as soon as the vet entered to give me updates. I could feel he lost a lot of weight because I could feel his bones too easily. I know he wouldn’t eat much at a strange scary place, so I definitely hope he could come home tomorrow so that I could fatten him up.
Serious Stuff. Seriously
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