Kitty Update

I wanted to write a little update for Daisy. If you haven't read my previous post, (go do that!) basically she was diagnosed with metestatic lung cancer from a lump we found under her armpit that we, at first, thought it might just be a lipoma until it changed to become hard and oozy. Anybody that has been warned about cancer, knows that when a lump suddenly changes shape/hardness, to be worried and get it checked out. Even though we never did a pathology on the lump after her surgery, they did an xray when the lump grew back and found masses on her lungs.

They gave her up to 6 months. That was back in October. Because she is 18, and the masses were in her lungs, they knew putting her under anesthesia would be too dangerous. And doing chemo would wipe her out much worse than a younger cat. It wasn't worth it for her quality of life to put her through that.

I just wanted to give anybody interested some idea of the resources out there when you have an animal going through something like this, in case they were unaware like we were. Daisy's vet/insurance is through Banfield (Petsmart) and all they could really do is ask the oncologist his recommendations about how to treat her with her remaining months left. But while we waited on an answer, Daisy was becoming more lethargic, not eating very much, and anything she did eat, she might throw up. We weren't sure where to turn.

I began to do research (like I do), and found out that not only were their hospice/palliative care services for animals, but they could even travel to your home. Granted, it won't be covered under any kind of insurance, but if they could help Daisy then it was worth it.

We found a travel vet call Peaceful Goodbyes, and she was able to come out within a couple of days. Daisy, at this point, had done a 180 from a couple days ago and was now eating again, but we were still worried about her pain level. 

See, cats hide their pain very well, and sometimes that pain can cause them to not want to eat, which can turn out very badly within just a couple of days if they continue down that road. We wanted to get ahead of the lack of appetite/throwing up, since it would only take a couple of days for her to suffer from hepatic lipidosis. 

The vet prescribed an anti-nausea medication that was actually meant for dogs, so we had to cut these tiny pills into quarters, which is not easy. And then, she gave her a shot of ketamine. It's hard to find anything online about ketamine for animals in regards to pain control, as mostly articles will pop up that it's used for anethesia. But boy, did it work miracles. Daisy felt a million times better and wanted to eat the whole world. In fact, she wanted more food than I think I've ever seen her eat in the 3 years I've known her. The ketamine could last about 4 weeks and then we could get her into her Banfield for another shot. This visit basically cost $315 (when you include the 2 meds), but now she was set up with a hospice vet that we could call on to do at-home euthanasia when the time came. 

We continue to give her her gabapentin to help with arthritis, and Banfield also prescribed a steroid to help with inflammation. Unfortunately, when it was time for Daisy's second shot of Ketamine, it didn't do all the wonders it did the first time, which is pretty disappointing. I mean, she's still eating a good amount, but she also lost almost a lb of weight in a month, which is horrible. We feed her anytime she begs for food, and we give her just enough for her to be able to finish her plate in 2 sittings (wet food, of course.) But I guess the disease is using her calories so she's still losing weight.

I went online to do more research (since Banfield isn't much help) and basically googled "my cat is losing weight". Irritatingly, what pops up is "find out why your cat is losing weight". We already know why, what can we do about it?? They gave basic instructions like, feed wet food, and warm it up etc. Sigh. But in my googling I saw an ad for a high calorie Nutri-gel for cats. It's a sticky, molases-like stuff that tastes fishy, and Daisy seems to like it. We put a small amount on her paw for her to lick up. We haven't had it long enough to see if it's helping, but it couldn't hurt that's for sure. We'll mix it up into her wet food too.

So that's the update so far. Just some resources for anyone that might be going through something similar with their pet.