okay, where do i start?
the end i guess... maxerodenfoe has kitty cancer.
on friday i took him to the vet to be neutered. i mentioned over the phone a few days prior that he didn't seem to be feeling very well. he'd been spitting up clear colorless bile and seemed to be sleeping a lot. because of this, instead of being neutered, the vet saw him for an exam. the first assumption was that he may have eaten something he shouldn't have... like string or a hair elastic like the one that had recently gone missing. so an x ray was needed.
i waited around, nervous as ever over max's little tummy.
once the x rays came back the vet started explaining the x ray to me. his tummy and intestines were perfectly fine. but in his upper chest there was white where there was meant to be black - fluid where there was meant to be air. at least... she thought it was fluid.
assuming what was in max was fluid the vet asked to keep max for the morning into the afternoon to take a sample from his chest to see if it was internal bleeding or if perhaps max had this awful thing called f.i.p.. i called ryan, all choked up and he came right home from work. at that moment is when we both began thinking max might have to be put down, and at such a young age (he's only just turned 7 months old). we waited impatiently, nervously, for the vet's reply by phone. more than anything we wanted to bring max home and have him with us.
my phone rang at a little before 3pm. the vet told me that she was "mystified" by max. the white in his chest was not fluid, it is a hard mass.
we went to pick max up at 4. the vet had had to shave a couple square inches of fur of either side of him just behind his front legs. he was tired, his tail was flared. he was not a happy kitty. we were so pleased to have him home though, even though we didn't know what was going on.
the vet said she would take his x rays to a clinic near by and send the small fluid sample she got out of max to a pathology lab.
on saturday morning the vet called us. she's dedicated so much to figuring out what's wrong with our little orange kitten. i already owe he so much gratitude. she called to let us know that she'd spoken to another vet. between the two of them, and having had a look at the fluid sample, they thought, despite his young age, that max might have one of two types of cancer. one of them was lymphoma. this is treat-able by drug treatments and costs only $1000 (or less) over the course of a full year and has considerably high success rates for putting the cancer into remission so that the animal can live a regular life, albeit short. the second kind was one that required radiation treatment and would cost a considerable amount more, never mind the fact that our lovely vet had never dealt with this second kind of kitty cancer.
she said, on saturday that we'd hear something on tuesday. we did. the pathology exam came back positive for lymphoma. the pathologist made a note, though, to test max for leukemia to confirm the diagnosis. it is extremely rare for a cat of max's age to have such a significant amount of cancer in his chest at such a young age, or even to get this type of cancer.
she called to find out from me if ryan and i were interested in trying the drug treatment and i told her defiantly yes.
so she's going to do some research, some talking around, and will have a word with the pathologist and give me a call back tomorrow.
max is going to start his treatment on friday as well as get his leukemia test (again... he cleared it at his first visit, but these tests ate 100% accurate).
max, right now, is sleeping nearly all of the day. he's eating, but only a tiny bit at a time. he's been taking antibiotics as a precaution against any infection that may have been introduced during his vet visit last friday where some fluid sample was extracted. he's so tired though... and loosing a little weight on account of not playing and not eating as much. he responds to being called, he comes downstairs to be with us when he has the energy, and he cuddles with us when he can.
we're hoping and praying that he responds to the treatment. it's so hard for both of us to see him like this. at lest today though, we know what he has and we know that we can do something for him.
anyone that's talked to me over the past few days knows how upset i've been and how stressed i've been over this.
... wibble passing away was even harder for me to take on account of everything that's gone on with our darling little kitten.
so your happy wishes are appreciated. just keep max in the back of your mind. he needs all the happy warm kitty vibes he can get right now.
and ryan gave this to me tonight, which i forwarded to some of you already... it made me laugh so hard i cried. and it's been a while since i laughed.
cats
the end i guess... maxerodenfoe has kitty cancer.
on friday i took him to the vet to be neutered. i mentioned over the phone a few days prior that he didn't seem to be feeling very well. he'd been spitting up clear colorless bile and seemed to be sleeping a lot. because of this, instead of being neutered, the vet saw him for an exam. the first assumption was that he may have eaten something he shouldn't have... like string or a hair elastic like the one that had recently gone missing. so an x ray was needed.
i waited around, nervous as ever over max's little tummy.
once the x rays came back the vet started explaining the x ray to me. his tummy and intestines were perfectly fine. but in his upper chest there was white where there was meant to be black - fluid where there was meant to be air. at least... she thought it was fluid.
assuming what was in max was fluid the vet asked to keep max for the morning into the afternoon to take a sample from his chest to see if it was internal bleeding or if perhaps max had this awful thing called f.i.p.. i called ryan, all choked up and he came right home from work. at that moment is when we both began thinking max might have to be put down, and at such a young age (he's only just turned 7 months old). we waited impatiently, nervously, for the vet's reply by phone. more than anything we wanted to bring max home and have him with us.
my phone rang at a little before 3pm. the vet told me that she was "mystified" by max. the white in his chest was not fluid, it is a hard mass.
we went to pick max up at 4. the vet had had to shave a couple square inches of fur of either side of him just behind his front legs. he was tired, his tail was flared. he was not a happy kitty. we were so pleased to have him home though, even though we didn't know what was going on.
the vet said she would take his x rays to a clinic near by and send the small fluid sample she got out of max to a pathology lab.
on saturday morning the vet called us. she's dedicated so much to figuring out what's wrong with our little orange kitten. i already owe he so much gratitude. she called to let us know that she'd spoken to another vet. between the two of them, and having had a look at the fluid sample, they thought, despite his young age, that max might have one of two types of cancer. one of them was lymphoma. this is treat-able by drug treatments and costs only $1000 (or less) over the course of a full year and has considerably high success rates for putting the cancer into remission so that the animal can live a regular life, albeit short. the second kind was one that required radiation treatment and would cost a considerable amount more, never mind the fact that our lovely vet had never dealt with this second kind of kitty cancer.
she said, on saturday that we'd hear something on tuesday. we did. the pathology exam came back positive for lymphoma. the pathologist made a note, though, to test max for leukemia to confirm the diagnosis. it is extremely rare for a cat of max's age to have such a significant amount of cancer in his chest at such a young age, or even to get this type of cancer.
she called to find out from me if ryan and i were interested in trying the drug treatment and i told her defiantly yes.
so she's going to do some research, some talking around, and will have a word with the pathologist and give me a call back tomorrow.
max is going to start his treatment on friday as well as get his leukemia test (again... he cleared it at his first visit, but these tests ate 100% accurate).
max, right now, is sleeping nearly all of the day. he's eating, but only a tiny bit at a time. he's been taking antibiotics as a precaution against any infection that may have been introduced during his vet visit last friday where some fluid sample was extracted. he's so tired though... and loosing a little weight on account of not playing and not eating as much. he responds to being called, he comes downstairs to be with us when he has the energy, and he cuddles with us when he can.
we're hoping and praying that he responds to the treatment. it's so hard for both of us to see him like this. at lest today though, we know what he has and we know that we can do something for him.
anyone that's talked to me over the past few days knows how upset i've been and how stressed i've been over this.
... wibble passing away was even harder for me to take on account of everything that's gone on with our darling little kitten.
so your happy wishes are appreciated. just keep max in the back of your mind. he needs all the happy warm kitty vibes he can get right now.
and ryan gave this to me tonight, which i forwarded to some of you already... it made me laugh so hard i cried. and it's been a while since i laughed.
cats
4 comments:
(((Max)))
I'm so sorry, dear; I hope he'll get through it alright...
What a birthday week this was for you, huh?! You should treat yourself to something indulgent tomorrow.
Big hugs!
INVISIBLE SANDWICH!
Hi Katy,
We were very upset to hear the bad news about Max.
I hope the three of you are coping together okay.
Just wanted to wish you a very happy birthday today all the same.
Lots of love,
K & R x.
k&r,
we're coping alright. and thank you so much for the birthday wishes!
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