Cat chemotherapy

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The vet rang up today to tell us that the biopsy our gorgeous boy has just had shows he has cancer . They are doing further tests to establish exactly what type and best treatment options but have said it is likely to be chemotherapy.

Has anyone had a cat treated like this? How did they cope? I don't want him to suffer but if he can have more happy months with the treatment then that's what we will do.

I'm very sorry you've had bad news. Chemo isn't something offered by our clinic so I don't know the answer. Hopefully someone will have some experience.

My instinct would be not to do it. It sounds like a lot of suffering for very little benefit, but I may be completely wrong.

I had a cat on it for 5 years, but it'll depend on what kind of cancer it is as to what the protocol is.

Mine was just a steroid every second day, a tablet every 2 weeks and regular blood tests.

So sorry to hear that random, how old is he?

Keeping an eye on this thread as my gorgeous boy is off to referral hospital for a CT scan tomorrow that is expected to reveal a nasal tumor.... Rhinoscopy and biopsy, cultures and blood work so far clear but he's got snot and bleeding from one nostril and abx aren't clearing it (they did for a while).

He's nearly 16 but apart from the snotty nostril in rude health, eating normally, as affectionate and playful as ever. He's had full senior blood work up recently that didn't indicate any thing or any thyroid or kidney stuff that might be expected at this age. He's insured and I live a 2 min walk from usual vet so I'd like to give him a chance if the tumor is found and is manageable and he's not in pain and still enjoying life (as he is at mo).

Have been told that cats can tolerate chemo really well and it's not like human chemo, usually just tablets and blood tests. Good luck for you and your cat.

Our vet told us that there were two types of chemo: full on chemo involving a weekly trip to the vets and having it done via IV and the other is a chemo tablet every other day that we administer.

The vet said that chemo for cats wasn't as strong as human chemo as the aim is not to cure, but to reduce and inhibit further growths, so there aren't the same side effects as for people.

We were going to go with the tablet option (with steroids as you need them with chemo) but the latest biopsy for our boy didn't show lymphoma as expected (earlier biopsy was inconclusive, so had another) but infection (he has a lump in his bowel). So he's now going in to have the lump removed and a course of antibiotics and see what comes back from the lab when they have the whole lump!

All the best for your boy x

Look at Cole and Marmalade on YouTube. Magnificent Marmalade had chemo (not like it is for humans). M is FIV positive by the way.
He's thriving.

Thank you all for your replies.

He has multiple lumps in his stomach and enlarged lymph nodes I think. He has had a sensitive tummy and been sick when eating food he shouldn't for as long as we can remember, but it just suddenly seemed to get much worse a few weeks ago and he lost a lot of weight.

He is nearly 9 so not elderly, but not really young either.

He had started eating well after his biopsy and put on nearly all the weight he had lost, but has been horribly sick this evening and been curled up on my lap just looking so tired. I hate not knowing what is best for him - I'm worried that he might be in more pain than we think .

Maltropp and Offler, I'm wishing your precious boys all the best.

Mine had a couple of lumps on her stomach and an enlarged spleen and lymph nodes, after a couple of not hugely succesful needle biopsy we went with the working diagnosis of lymphoma as although they couldn't find the right cells in the biopsy everything else fitted.

After her first dose of chemo everything enlarged or lumpy shrank, they didn't disappear, but stopped making her throw up and she got perkier.

2 or 3 times (always in winter) she'd lose weight or stop eating and we considered having her PTS, but mostly she had 5 years of pretty normal quality of life before she started really losing weight and we couldn't get it back on her.

Don't know if more detail helps...

My cat was diagnosed 18 months ago with liver cancer, lymphoma and leukemia. Confirmed with two rounds of blood tests and scans. She'd stopped eating completely. Vet said she'd be dead in days if we did nothing as her liver was packing up and we'd have six to nine months with chemo and steroids if we were lucky. I just couldn't have put her through chemo as she's very highly strung and going to the vets sends her crazy for weeks so it just would have been torture for her.

In sheer desperation I turned to a holistic vet. Fully qualified proper vet that specialises in cancer and uses a lot of alternative therapies. She came and did a home visit and gave us various homeopathic treatments. I don't believe in homeopathy.

Fortunately my cat does. Next day she started eating again. She started to put weight back on and within a month or so was back up to normal weight. Eighteen months on she's still with us. She's glossy, a great weight, playful and very happy.

She's not cured - she is still sick more than a normal cat and she has to have her medicine twice a day. Both holistic and normal vet can still feel the lumps. But we never believed it could be cured. We said we'd do what we could for her at home and when that stopped working we'd let her go before she went downhill. Thankfully we've not got there yet but the time will come and the vet will come to us and let her slip away at home. But whilst she's eating, playing and happy we'll keep going.

Best thing I've ever done for any of my animals. Still a bit suspicious about homeopathy though. When the normal vet had to see her for something else a year after she was diagnosed they actually checked the microchip as they didn't believe it was the same cat. It's now a running joke with my friends that the cat is a big faker as honestly you wouldn't believe there was anything wrong with her just by looking at her.

Perhaps my experience is coincidence, but I wanted to share in case it's something you want to explore. Best of luck at this tough time.

Well, the vet just called as they had him open on the operating table, the lump is in risky place, junction of small and large bowels. But the lump definitely looks like lymphoma and he has several enlarged lymph nodes. Removing the lump would mean that the bowel may not heal back together properly especially if it's lymphoma, and if that were the case he'd have to be PTS. So we said to take a sample and stitch him back up and we'll see where we end up in 10 days (hopefully healed and ready to start tablet chemo).

Fingers crossed for you and your boy Offler.

CT has confirmed that my old boy has a large mass in his left nostril it is threatening the membranes into his brain and there are shadows suggesting mets on his lungs.....vet is doing a careful biopsy to try and type it and see if it's amenable to any treatment but other than that as he's well at the mo with normal quality of life it'll be most likely home wth abx and a steroid to try to slow things down until his quality of life starts to fade then pts. I'm waiting to hear he's out of theatre....(selfishly Half wanting him to not wake so I don't have to make that hard decision down the line but also wanting op for me and kids to spoil him and say goodbye as I dropped him off at the referral vets 20 miles away yesterday morning). I have old boys sibling cat who he's never been away from for more than 24 hours before here too.... Sigh.

I know what you mean Maltropp, half of me is hoping he'll just pass peacefully in his sleep. DD is heartbroken, we lost our old girl tortoiseshell at the end of October too 😩. I hope there is something they can do for your boy xx

Thank you Offler.

He got through surgery today (investigatory) fine and is purry and settled at the vets.

He's due home on sat, we find out middle of next week if the cancer is type likely to respond at all to chemo (pallation to hold it at bay not curative) or not. It's reached the membranes between nose and brain but he's not got any nuero symptoms at mo but ex H (technically his cat) and I decided that if any seizures we'd pts. Vet feels that pts asap is not necessary as he does currently have a good quality of life. He's been being investigated for this problem since late August so I've already wept buckets but it's going to be bittersweet having him back home but not knowing how long for and my kids commented that they've never known life without him.... He's a total in your face cat, but 16 is a fair innings and I don't want him suffering so we will take each day as it comes.

Fingers crossed for your boy.

Oh so sad

I think I would err on the same path as in PTS. Such a personal decision. Interesting to hear that chemo is different in the sense its far less damaging effects because of aim to simply slow down or halt further growth.

I am always very cautious though as I worry a lot about vets and treatments because of the stress involved for animal cannot understand whats going on and they bear pain so stoically.

Best wishes to you all in difficult times

Offler that is so similar to us - waiting for the results of further tests they're doing on the biopsy. I'm so sorry to hear you lost your tortoiseshell in October

Maltropp - our boys sister was just the same - she cried at night when he was at the vets. Part of me wonders if it would be better if he could just pass peacefully in his sleep soon it would be much easier for him.

I am struggling with this. He doesn't like taking tablets - he is a nightmare with them - he can sniff them out of any food and he doesn't eat much anyway now. I'm worried we'll put him off what he does eat. I'm also worrying about his poo and vomit becoming toxic - we've got two small children and our nanny also brings hers to work with her. I can't run the risk of anything happening to any of the children, but it feels so horrible to say that. I need to try to understand more about it from the vets when we see her on Saturday.

The whole body fluids thing, my cat's oncologist reckoned it was a case of the advice being a bit OTT.

As people have mentioned already, it's low doses because it's not to cure and it's also tiny cat size doses.

I do know I once had to phone the emergency out of hours vets to go...um, my 12 week old puppy has just managed to raid the litter tray, the cat had chlorambucil 12 hours ago - do I need to rush him in?

They did lots of phoning about before deciding that at that size difference and the fact that it had already been through the cat, it was fine.

The puppy is 4 now, so I'm guessing they were right, rofl.

That's helpful to know - the vet was being quite heavy about it on the phone. But then when I asked it there was a risk to our other cat if she used the same litter tray said it was "theoretical", it would already have been through one cat and was unlikely to be an issue. I probably need to find out about how long it's an issue for - if it was only a couple of days after a dose then that's different to it being weeks. So many unknowns. He's sick everywhere though - it would be so hard to be 100% sure the children couldn't touch it.

The advice I was given was not to touch any of her body fluids for a week after her tablet, if she was sick and when changing litter trays wear gloves and use warm soapy water to clear any vomit or anything up.

When I questioned him because of my DC, he asked how old they were...they were 10 and 14 at the time, that was when he said that it was a bit OTT, he didn't know of a single case of anyone actually being affected by it (and he's pretty well known in the field, it's a vet school I was at and he's very senior) and that TBH kids that age could probably do with a dose of radioactivity, it'd sort them out, lol.

By the time she was a week after her first dose she wasn't being sick anything like as much anyway...and being honest, after years of it, I got pretty cavalier about being careful and nobody got ill.

I'm not advising being cavalier about it mind, especially not with younger DC, just that he was pretty sure that it wasn't as big a risk as they had to advise it was.