Need some help ASAP Re: GI masses in cats

[sandtigress]

Hi guys. I haven't been here in awhile - life has taken me elsewheres but I have always recommended these forums to people in need of help or just wanting to talk about cats.

I wish I could come under better circumstances, but such is life. I need help this morning, if possible, about what to do with Billy. He's my oldest guy at 7 years old and everyone else's favorite of my three.

I'd noticed a few weeks ago that he was feeling awfully skinny, but I chalked that up to possibly losing winter coat and going to semi-food strike from not getting wet food for awhile. So I put wet back in his diet and kept an eye on him. During the winter he'd seemed perfectly normal as far as playing, eating, behavior, etc. I wish I knew when things had started to go downhill.

I had a two day trip to Austin for my new job on Monday and Tuesday. Sunday night he had a normal appetite, begging for his wet food dinner. Monday morning I was up early so he and Chay were confused and wanting dinner while I was in the kitchen.

When I got back Tuesday night, he was listless and didn't even show up for dinner. Billy never misses food. Or the possibility that there might be food, so I knew something was really wrong. I found him on the couch, tried to coax him to eat, but got nothing. Someone had thrown up a few hairballs while I was gone, so I thought maybe he was a bit nauseous and just not wanting to eat.

Wednesday morning he had made it up the stairs but was still listless and when I checked, I was fairly certain he was pretty dehydrated. I tried to get him to drink a little, but called his vet immediately and dropped him off.

After a bunch of negative tests, the vet called me this morning. Billy has masses in his stomach and GI tract. The vet (who is absolutely wonderful both in the past and during this time) says that he could try to aspirate a few cells to make a better diagnosis, but he hasn't had much luck with that in the past.

The most informative route to go would be exploratory surgery, but Billy is already in bad shape - the vet confirms that the surgery would be extremely risky for him, and there's a pretty small chance (in the vet's experience and opinion) that there's anything he would find that would be treatable. If that is indeed the case, then financially and I think compassionately the best thing I can do is to put my boy down, and it breaks my heart.

He's not eating, so I don't think I can take him home with palliative care for any reasonable period. In my gut, this is a decision I have to make today.

So I'm coming to you, TCS family, to see if any of you have similar experiences, if any of you know of anything treatable that could cause this or how to make his last days at home comfortable, or if my gut instinct is right, and letting him go today or in the very near future is what has to be done.

Thank you so much for your help.

 

[violet]

What a heartbreaking situation. And Billy is so young. How terribly sad.
Would your vet think that medication might be able to help at least temporarily and give Billy a little more time? That's the only thing I can think of and that's what I would ask my vet in the same situation.

My heart goes out to you.

 

[sandtigress]

Thanks Violet.

I went to see him this morning before I went into work. He's too weak to lift his head up but he was purring and kneading when I pet him. <3

We have a game plan so far at least. There's fluid in his stomach, and we don't know what that is. So we're going to aspirate that and see if it tells us anything. If it's blood, then we know it's game over. If it's stomach fluid, we take the next step. The vet just called to say that Billy was wiggling too much to even get the stomach aspirate, so they're going to anesthetize him and try to get a sample of the mystery mass at the same time. If we're lucky, that will tell us what we need to know. And the wiggling is a good sign - he's perking up a bit with a tiny bit more energy.

If we're still not sure, I'm considering the exploratory surgery. They might just open up, see really bad things, and that might be it. I just feel like if it was just an obstruction, I'm not sure I could bear having not done the surgery. It would feel like I gave in too easy. But he's pretty weak and the vet's not sure how well he'll pull through the surgery if they have to do major things. I guess we'll take that leap when we get there.

My vet is so great, today is his day off and he's still in doing all this stuff for Billy and keeping me really up to date. So right now, I guess some continued prayers and vibes that something today tells us something we can work with. Thanks. <3

 

[violet]

Your vet is truly wonderful. What a blessing for you.
Sending many prayers for Billy and you.

 

[misstorri]

Im so sorry to hear about Billy! The same thing just happened to my Kaya in March. After the xrays showed cancer throughout his body my vet gave him some Prednisolne to get him through the next couple days I was going to spend with him. (we aspirated him too) Unfortunatley he had a violent seziure that same night and died in my arms. I truly wish I had gently put him to sleep that night. In a way I had always wished he would die at home in his sleep (he REALLY hated the vets office) but I would never have imagined it would be so horrible for the both of us. Good luck to you and Billy, I have you both in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[jcat]

I'm sorry you've had to come back in such circumstances. Mega for Billy!

 

[jennyr]

I am so sorry you are going through this with your beloved Billy. Many vibes for you all

 

[sandtigress]

Thanks so much everyone. The stomach aspiration showed that all the fluid is just normal stomach fluid, so from a health perspective that's good. We were concerned it might be blood, which would be mucho bad.

For right now, they're giving him IV nutrition and we're going with exploratory surgery early tomorrow morning. My vet is pretty confident that he'll be able to make a judgment call once he can see what's going on, whether it would be something fairly routine to treat, like a simple obstruction, or whether it's something too far gone or too complex to treat in Billy's current state.

Hoping for an easy to remove obstruction!

Thank you all for the well-wishes, prayer, and vibes! I know those TCS vibes are magical!

 

[white cat lover]

Just 5 weeks ago today I was in your shoes. My Goatie was a 9 year old petite little thing. Lost weight, wasn't eating, but acted fine. A vet exam revealed a "lump" in her intestines. Exploratory surgery found the "lump" to indeed be a mass (not a simple obstruction as I hoped)....and that the mass had many friends on her pancreas, in her intestines, and elsewhere. Rather than wake her up from exploratory surgery, as the prognosis was not good, she was euthanized.

I do so hope Billy's case is different.

 

[sandtigress]

Gosh, I hope it does turn out different. How did they find the lump? Palpation, x-ray, ultrasound? As far as I know, his kidneys look okay since the vet was worried about kidney failure and took special care to look at that so he might have noticed "lumps" in other organs. Right now we're just seeing fluid where there shouldn't be, and I think the only mass he sees is the one on or near his stomach.

Poor Goatie though. *hugs* to you in your loss. :-(

 

[sandtigress]

Billy's surgery should start any minute now, and they said they'd call me during to let me know what was going on.

 

[sandtigress]

Billy is out of surgery! They found a foreign body obstructing his intestines in his stomach and were able to remove it. The vet said that all his intestines look irritated but healthy and flushed with blood after she was able to remove the mass, so she's hopeful that there's no long term damage. So we're going to have to watch for your normal post-op stuff like sepsis or peritonitis, and watch out for pneumonia since he had a lot of stomach fluid move up to his mouth and nose, but I'm really hopeful!

The vet said she pulled out something that looked like plant matter, which is weird since Billy is strictly indoors and I have no houseplants. But I think the little bugger probably pulled some corn husks out of the trash while he was trying to get the empty containers of wet food and ate those. My newly-accepted into vet school friend and I are going to stop by later this evening to visit with Billy and see if that's what it was.

TCS vibes and prayers are awesome. It will still be a long road to recovery, but at least recovery is something we can talk about! And advice on post-op/post-GI tract surgery would be welcome!

 

[carolina]

Yey! I am so happy you chose the surgery and your little one is ok!

Monster vibes for a wonderful recovery!

 

[violet]

They found a foreign body obstructing his intestines in his stomach and were able to remove it.

Oh my God, such wonderful news! Sandtigress, I can't tell you how happy I am for you and Billy. This is really fantastic.

So we're going to have to watch for your normal post-op stuff like sepsis or peritonitis, and watch out for pneumonia since he had a lot of stomach fluid move up to his mouth and nose, but I'm really hopeful!

When one of my girls was in this situation and it was vital to prevent sepsis or peritonitis, our vet put her on an injectable antibiotic (for about 10 days or so, I don't remember exactly) so the digestive tract didn't have to deal with the possible adverse effects of an oral antibiotic in an already bad situation. (She didn't need an injection every single day, only twice a week.) She came through fine without any complications. I'm wondering if this might be an option as a safety precaution for your Billy as well.

 

[sandtigress]

Thanks Carolina, and you got a new kitty while I was gone! Violet, post-op stuff is hopefully on the agenda to talk about tonight, so I'll mention the injectable antibiotic if they don't. Thanks for the suggestion!