Hello, I will spare the last 5 weeks of what my little Gob (pronounced Jobe, like the arrested development character) has been going through and say that we got an ultrasound yesterday showing an enlarged lymph node near his kidney and inflammation in the pancreas. The vet is assuming it is lymphoma or IBD, and we will be doing a small needle aspiration in 2 days to try and diagnose.
The vet warned me that the results are often inconclusive and a surgical biopsy would need to be done to determine which it is, so we can either start chemo or just stick with treating the inflammation.
A different vet (the local emergency vet) said she wouldn't put her sick cat through the surgical biopsy. But of course I'm reading and seeing that chemo can add a good amount of time and quality of life, rather than just treating with steroids and giving them a month or two until the cancer takes over. But of course they will not administer chemo without proof that it is definitely lymphoma.
Has anyone had to make this decision?
(FYI, we will be starting steroids the second we get the small needle biopsy over with in 2 days, since he's just so sick.)
The vet warned me that the results are often inconclusive and a surgical biopsy would need to be done to determine which it is, so we can either start chemo or just stick with treating the inflammation.
A different vet (the local emergency vet) said she wouldn't put her sick cat through the surgical biopsy. But of course I'm reading and seeing that chemo can add a good amount of time and quality of life, rather than just treating with steroids and giving them a month or two until the cancer takes over. But of course they will not administer chemo without proof that it is definitely lymphoma.
Has anyone had to make this decision?
(FYI, we will be starting steroids the second we get the small needle biopsy over with in 2 days, since he's just so sick.)