This site is a wonderful resource and I am hoping I can get some thoughts on our situation.
Our 15-year-old Loki was just diagnosed with end-stage kidney cancer that has spread to his lungs. The tumor has completely taken over his left kidney and he has several nodules in his lungs. He showed no symptoms until about a month ago when he was having trouble with bowel movements and we took him to the vet. The vet performed an ultrasound and found his kidney to be odd shaped. After we mentioned that he recently ( less than a month) developed a rasp when he purred ( which has now progressed to getting out of breath when he walks longer distances) the vet checked his lungs and the outlook was grim. We were sent to an internal medicine specialist for a CT scan. While we were there the vet advised us to put in a feeding tube. Loki had slowly begun to turn away food to the point we were helping him with syringe feeding. The vet was worried he may have "fatty liver" so we agreed to the e- feeding tube. ( anything to help him we would do in a blink of an eye.) The vet called us that evening with the results of the CT Scan and confirmed cancer. He said Loki was doing well from the e-tube procedure and we could pick him up the next day and discuss palliative care.
Here we are a little over a week later and Loki is handling the feeding tube well. He is on Metoclopramide for nausea and digestion. He takes a steroid ( liquid) daily. He has begun to have an occasional daily or every other day one-time coughing fit, which we were warned could happen. He does seem more " tucked in" for most of the day, but when we are home he has no problem being around us ( he's always been quite the affectionate, stuck by our side, cat ). It's like his mind and heart tell him to do his normal routine like being interested in a can of food opening and when we are sat at the dinner table coming to see what we have. He has moments where you would never think a thing was wrong with him. And others where I can look at his face and see he's feeling off. Or when his mind has told him to walk all around following what we are doing in the kitchen and he has stop to catch his breath. ( no open mouth breathing) just seems winded and crouches down. We calm him and he gets in a more rested position and then his breathing rate returns to a rested or more normal state.
The vet has given us a timeline of a month
. He is like a child to my husband and I. We make up stories about things he would say or do in a situation to make us laugh. He's a big cat with a big personality and even bigger heart. He loves to lay in our bed with his front paws pushed into our hair. He's survived the worst conditions. ( He was trapped in a house during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a house that flooded with 6 1/2 feet of water and spent a week after with hardly any food or water while rescue attempted to get him out). We have been his parents since his rescue.
I know so many of you know the feeling and understand how much he means to us. We feel like we know him well enough to know when "its time" and we are cherishing every minute he's here with us. I am hoping some others here have been through this in some way and can help with a few questions we have.
- What has been your experience with the dosage time of the steroid?
( our vet suggests evenings ) but we found when we gave it to him midday he was more himself in the later afternoons. I've read cats are usually better with the evening dosage, but our Loki is a "sleep all day, active in the late afternoon and evening, and in bed with us full sleep thru the night" kind of cat. We have slowly transitioned him to evening dosage ( it's only been 2 days on evening dosage) to see if that works the same or better for him.
- Are there "cat's with cancer" support groups or forums out there?
- Thoughts on pain medicines?
Our vet prescribed gabapentin - the first dosage we gave him with his feeding he gagged horribly and made this noise like we stepped on his tail. It was awful. Since we have tried to avoid it, and honestly we don't know how we feel about drugging him up all the time knowing that it isn't due to a condition that will get better over time.
- Any other words of advice, thoughts, or experience are most welcome.
Our 15-year-old Loki was just diagnosed with end-stage kidney cancer that has spread to his lungs. The tumor has completely taken over his left kidney and he has several nodules in his lungs. He showed no symptoms until about a month ago when he was having trouble with bowel movements and we took him to the vet. The vet performed an ultrasound and found his kidney to be odd shaped. After we mentioned that he recently ( less than a month) developed a rasp when he purred ( which has now progressed to getting out of breath when he walks longer distances) the vet checked his lungs and the outlook was grim. We were sent to an internal medicine specialist for a CT scan. While we were there the vet advised us to put in a feeding tube. Loki had slowly begun to turn away food to the point we were helping him with syringe feeding. The vet was worried he may have "fatty liver" so we agreed to the e- feeding tube. ( anything to help him we would do in a blink of an eye.) The vet called us that evening with the results of the CT Scan and confirmed cancer. He said Loki was doing well from the e-tube procedure and we could pick him up the next day and discuss palliative care.
Here we are a little over a week later and Loki is handling the feeding tube well. He is on Metoclopramide for nausea and digestion. He takes a steroid ( liquid) daily. He has begun to have an occasional daily or every other day one-time coughing fit, which we were warned could happen. He does seem more " tucked in" for most of the day, but when we are home he has no problem being around us ( he's always been quite the affectionate, stuck by our side, cat ). It's like his mind and heart tell him to do his normal routine like being interested in a can of food opening and when we are sat at the dinner table coming to see what we have. He has moments where you would never think a thing was wrong with him. And others where I can look at his face and see he's feeling off. Or when his mind has told him to walk all around following what we are doing in the kitchen and he has stop to catch his breath. ( no open mouth breathing) just seems winded and crouches down. We calm him and he gets in a more rested position and then his breathing rate returns to a rested or more normal state.
The vet has given us a timeline of a month
. He is like a child to my husband and I. We make up stories about things he would say or do in a situation to make us laugh. He's a big cat with a big personality and even bigger heart. He loves to lay in our bed with his front paws pushed into our hair. He's survived the worst conditions. ( He was trapped in a house during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a house that flooded with 6 1/2 feet of water and spent a week after with hardly any food or water while rescue attempted to get him out). We have been his parents since his rescue.I know so many of you know the feeling and understand how much he means to us. We feel like we know him well enough to know when "its time" and we are cherishing every minute he's here with us. I am hoping some others here have been through this in some way and can help with a few questions we have.
- What has been your experience with the dosage time of the steroid?
( our vet suggests evenings ) but we found when we gave it to him midday he was more himself in the later afternoons. I've read cats are usually better with the evening dosage, but our Loki is a "sleep all day, active in the late afternoon and evening, and in bed with us full sleep thru the night" kind of cat. We have slowly transitioned him to evening dosage ( it's only been 2 days on evening dosage) to see if that works the same or better for him.
- Are there "cat's with cancer" support groups or forums out there?
- Thoughts on pain medicines?
Our vet prescribed gabapentin - the first dosage we gave him with his feeding he gagged horribly and made this noise like we stepped on his tail. It was awful. Since we have tried to avoid it, and honestly we don't know how we feel about drugging him up all the time knowing that it isn't due to a condition that will get better over time.
- Any other words of advice, thoughts, or experience are most welcome.
Please do keep us updated with him!
