Hi everyone. I’m sorry for the long post, but I’m really conflicted. In summary, mine and my wife’s almost 16 year old cat was diagnosed with a stomach lymphoma about three months ago. He has been seeing a specialist internal medicine/oncologist vet for other issues and he found it. After two rounds of chemo, there was no sign of the stomach lymphoma, and he perked back up eating and gaining weight.
Unfortunately, two weeks ago lymphoma was found in his intestines and the first chemo did nothing. The oncologist tried a different drug a few days ago and now my little guy suddenly stopped eating (like turning off a light switch), so my wife and I are syringe feeding him until his next appointment Monday (the day of this post is Saturday). He’s on an appetite stimulant, which is now not working.
He developed a heart murmur and kidney disease about a year ago, but responded fantastically to treatment for both of those. The vet said, prior to his lymphoma, given his condition and blood tests, he could theoretically live another two years or more with just those two issues as long as they remained stable.
The thing that is absolutely gut wrenching for my wife and I is, other than not eating, he’s still going about his daily routine just like normal, and he is still alert and active for a 16 year old cat. We’ve had four cats previously, and we’ve never experienced this before. When our previous cats got sick, it was abundantly clear within a week's time what we needed to do. This time, not so much as the outward signs are not there even though we know he’s sick. He appears pretty normal, and there are no signs that he is in pain. Given our previous experience we feel like we know what to look for.
Has anyone been through this and lymphoma before? We don’t want to cut his life short, but I don’t want him to suffer either. I can say that syringe feeding is not a long term solution.
Unfortunately, two weeks ago lymphoma was found in his intestines and the first chemo did nothing. The oncologist tried a different drug a few days ago and now my little guy suddenly stopped eating (like turning off a light switch), so my wife and I are syringe feeding him until his next appointment Monday (the day of this post is Saturday). He’s on an appetite stimulant, which is now not working.
He developed a heart murmur and kidney disease about a year ago, but responded fantastically to treatment for both of those. The vet said, prior to his lymphoma, given his condition and blood tests, he could theoretically live another two years or more with just those two issues as long as they remained stable.
The thing that is absolutely gut wrenching for my wife and I is, other than not eating, he’s still going about his daily routine just like normal, and he is still alert and active for a 16 year old cat. We’ve had four cats previously, and we’ve never experienced this before. When our previous cats got sick, it was abundantly clear within a week's time what we needed to do. This time, not so much as the outward signs are not there even though we know he’s sick. He appears pretty normal, and there are no signs that he is in pain. Given our previous experience we feel like we know what to look for.
Has anyone been through this and lymphoma before? We don’t want to cut his life short, but I don’t want him to suffer either. I can say that syringe feeding is not a long term solution.