Oral Cancer, Bad Breath, Regrets

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reba

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BTW does anyone know if it’s normal for them to perk up like this when they start taking pred. for cancer?
 

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BTW does anyone know if it’s normal for them to perk up like this when they start taking pred. for cancer?
Pred can give a boost in the appetite and liveliness, it reduces the inflammation and hence some of the pain linked to that, so the cat feels better. But it's a palliative treatment and it is only hiding some of the symptoms while the disease is still there.
 

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I am terrified to force his mouth open as the cancer in his jaw. I used to think I could pill anything, but not this cat.
I had to open my cat's mouth everyday to feed her, because she wasn't able to eat on her own anymore.
She would let me do just anything, including open her mouth wide to take the photos.

So all in all a good day! I’ll take it. :)
I'm sure you will.
 

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So sorry for you and your poor kitty. I lost my Jezibel, outdoor kitty, last June to an oral cancer. It started in her eye, I thought cancer immediately, but dvm 1 said fhv infection. Dvm 2 did enucleation, the she got worse, more drooling etc. and she stopped eating, but app stim helped and steam helped. I told them to do a nasal exam / wash at her stitches removal, but they could not get her mouth open, they did an xray and said finally cancer and it had spread to the bone. I let her go without waking up. 😭

You should always do an x-ray immediately if you suspect this because it would’ve prolly showed that she had cancer before I tried treating her for a supposed FHV infection and then doing the enucleation which made it spread even more rapidly. Fortunately she was on painkillers the whole time as well.
 
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reba

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Not much change. He did perk up on the pred as Antonio described. Still eating fine, but a lot of licking his chops as well.

Good News: He followed me into the bathroom twice last night. He likes to be picked up and petted and rocked for several minutes (even though all I want to do is go back to sleep!). He has done this for a few years now. He gives me a nice bath while I am holding him.

Bad News: When I wake him to pet him in his bed, he does not look like a cat who is happy. I tested it out and my other two look up at you bright eyed and inquisitive when you wake them. So there is a real difference; I’m not imagining. I told the vet he got better on the pred and she cautioned me that she really didn’t think it was an infection. So that report from the radiologist (which I haven’t seen) was probably pretty grim. He also doesn’t move from sleeping place to sleeping place.

I hate this, I know everyone goes down this slope, but I hate it. It’s so unfair. People who ignore their cats and let them live in the garage and feed them cheap food are talking about how they died at 17. :livid::angryfire:😭
 

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Good News: He followed me into the bathroom twice last night. He likes to be picked up and petted and rocked for several minutes (even though all I want to do is go back to sleep!). He has done this for a few years now. He gives me a nice bath while I am holding him.

Bad News: When I wake him to pet him in his bed, he does not look like a cat who is happy. I tested it out and my other two look up at you bright eyed and inquisitive when you wake them. So there is a real difference; I’m not imagining. I told the vet he got better on the pred and she cautioned me that she really didn’t think it was an infection. So that report from the radiologist (which I haven’t seen) was probably pretty grim. He also doesn’t move from sleeping place to sleeping place.
I'm sorry to read this.
It's always a situation of balancing the good and the bad everyday, and I hope that the good is still superior to the bad.
 

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The cat that showed up at my house with oral cancer did amazingly well on prednisone for two years. His drooling stopped, he acted normal. The drooling was so bad it soaked his bedding every day, and he was covered in a black substance that was the drool changing black with all the bacteria in it. I did reduce the amount to finally one pill a day, just to the point it stopped his drooling. He acted happy until the end. I hated it when people would tell me to stop giving him long-term prednisone, about all the side effects. I always answered them "he's dying, anything I can do that makes him feel better, I will!" He did not suffer any side effects, he finally died when somehow he broke his pelvis.
My heart goes out to you, bless you for helping him, it means everything to him.....
 

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Sorry he is doing worse maybe. You have to play it by ear with situations like this and see how they do. Some may be ok for a while or even longer and others may get rapidly worse. The important thing is to be there for him as much as you can which you are doing. I have read that oral cancer can be very rapid which is what they said happened with Jez. My pup years ago also had some sort of facial oral cancer which started in her eye and which they said it was an infection at first too. I can’t remember how long she lasted after that, a few months maybe. There were almost no good treatments at that time. Hugs to you and kitty 💕 ps. I will never forget someone telling me after her cat had a svere reaction to a vaccine, she never took her to a dvm again. Kitty lived as indoor only, ate friskies dry, and lived until 22. There is no way to know what the future holds in terms of what will happen health wise.
 

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Please keep us posted. Very much appreciate you sharing. So sorry you are going through this, and yet still so considerate to share with others so we can take prevention if
Possible. I’m much like you in that prevention sense so I def understand your frustration. Hugs to you both!
 
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reba

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Update: I had a bit of a back and forth with the vet yesterday over prescribing him something more than the pred, but today I finally got to pick up some gabapentin and she wrote a scrip for bupenex (sp), but the compounding pharmacy isn’t open until Monday, plus it’s a controlled substance. (Sorry, but one of my pet (no pun intended) peeves is that we all have to suffer because a small % of the population has a substance abuse problem. I’m not minimizing the horror of addiction, but I wonder how many scrips for pain pills don’t get written because Dr.’s understandably don’t want their name flagged on some list.)

But anyway. He had a good night last night as well. Not eating quite as well, but that’s probably because the rush of getting new food flavors (I switched him to pate, same brand tho.) He finally went downstairs and sat in front of the window, instead of the bed he’s been sleeping in all day pretty much non-stop since the diagnosis. He’s also been jumping into bed with me about 5am like he normally would.

Bad News: I notice he’s constipated and he now seems a bit congested. I hope the tumor isn’t in his nose as well. The vet did say today that we caught it very early so maybe that’s why he’s not going downhill as fast as many cats who have this (?)
 
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reba

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The cat that showed up at my house with oral cancer did amazingly well on prednisone for two years. His drooling stopped, he acted normal. The drooling was so bad it soaked his bedding every day, and he was covered in a black substance that was the drool changing black with all the bacteria in it. I did reduce the amount to finally one pill a day, just to the point it stopped his drooling. He acted happy until the end. I hated it when people would tell me to stop giving him long-term prednisone, about all the side effects. I always answered them "he's dying, anything I can do that makes him feel better, I will!" He did not suffer any side effects, he finally died when somehow he broke his pelvis.
My heart goes out to you, bless you for helping him, it means everything to him.....
I had a question about this. I’m supposed to reduce the pred to 1 pill a day (5 mg pills I think) after 7 days, which is coming up. Not sure if that’s the right way to go.
 

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Update: I had a bit of a back and forth with the vet yesterday over prescribing him something more than the pred, but today I finally got to pick up some gabapentin and she wrote a scrip for bupenex (sp), but the compounding pharmacy isn’t open until Monday, plus it’s a controlled substance. (Sorry, but one of my pet (no pun intended) peeves is that we all have to suffer because a small % of the population has a substance abuse problem. I’m not minimizing the horror of addiction, but I wonder how many scrips for pain pills don’t get written because Dr.’s understandably don’t want their name flagged on some list.)

But anyway. He had a good night last night as well. Not eating quite as well, but that’s probably because the rush of getting new food flavors (I switched him to pate, same brand tho.) He finally went downstairs and sat in front of the window, instead of the bed he’s been sleeping in all day pretty much non-stop since the diagnosis. He’s also been jumping into bed with me about 5am like he normally would.

Bad News: I notice he’s constipated and he now seems a bit congested. I hope the tumor isn’t in his nose as well. The vet did say today that we caught it very early so maybe that’s why he’s not going downhill as fast as many cats who have this (?)
Yes agree about pk its a bad situation. That is good he is feeling better. You could try pumpkin for the constipation. He may need something else when he is on opiates.
 

Meowmee

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I had a question about this. I’m supposed to reduce the pred to 1 pill a day (5 mg pills I think) after 7 days, which is coming up. Not sure if that’s the right way to go.
Most cats with cancer stay on a steady dose of it since it treats the cancer and symptoms. Ask dvm about that. The reduction depends on what dose was started. Is he going to stay on 5mg a day?
 
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This morning (Sunday) I cannot get him to eat and his nose is running. I noticed he was sneezing more and getting stuffed up last night. I cannot get him to eat and I have not been able to get enough miralax in him to get him to poop. Not panicing, but kind of resigned. I separated he and I from my other two cats so he can have food out all day. Maybe he will get hungry enough to eat. I was getting him to finish by hand feeding, but he won’t even go for that this morning or tuna juice.
 
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It’s 12:30 PM now and he’s wheezing. I think he went to sleep downstairs to be by himself. I have not managed to get any food or liquids into him. I just chatted with the pet insurance vet hotline (Embrace, they’re great BTW) and she’s sending me out to get baby nose drops and suggested putting him in the shower.
 
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Well you know not in the shower. In the bathroom with the shower running for the steam. I just found antonio’s old posts about Lola and the nebulizer. Amazing story that is!
 
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Syringe fed him and didn’t go very well. I‘m not sure how much I actually got him to swallow.
 
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I got some more water into him this afternoon. Went much better than the syringe feeding. When I went upstaires to feed his children (they are his kittens that I bottle fed, I trapped him later and brought him inside), I heard him come up the stairs looking for food. Prepared bowl one - no interest, bowl two - also no interest. Squeezed the juice out of the proplan urninary veterinary diet, mixed in some pate and he ate some of that.

Oh and before he ate, he pooped - yeah!!!!

Then after he ate I stuck him in the bathroom and turned on the shower and let him sit in the steam for 15 minutes. He wasn’t happy about that and pawed at the door, but at least he has the will to express his displeasure. Let him out and he went to the water bowl and drank some water. Yeah! Then he came over and jumped up on the bed and is stretched out next to me. Still can here him wheezing though.

Still problem remains that I can’t get any meds into him.
 

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I got some more water into him this afternoon. Went much better than the syringe feeding. When I went upstaires to feed his children (they are his kittens that I bottle fed, I trapped him later and brought him inside), I heard him come up the stairs looking for food. Prepared bowl one - no interest, bowl two - also no interest. Squeezed the juice out of the proplan urninary veterinary diet, mixed in some pate and he ate some of that.

Oh and before he ate, he pooped - yeah!!!!

Then after he ate I stuck him in the bathroom and turned on the shower and let him sit in the steam for 15 minutes. He wasn’t happy about that and pawed at the door, but at least he has the will to express his displeasure. Let him out and he went to the water bowl and drank some water. Yeah! Then he came over and jumped up on the bed and is stretched out next to me. Still can here him wheezing though.

Still problem remains that I can’t get any meds into him.
Have you tried mixing the food with Fortiflora?
 

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Buprenex is a strong pain killer, but has the terrible side effects of giving cats constipation and sort of a dopey and stoned effect.
My only experience with that pain killer was awful and we had to stop.

Thanks for mentioning me and the nebulizer, I think it was the best solution for Lola and her chronic congested nose. The liquid I put in the nebulizer was a saline solution along with eucalyptus and propolis, and it was of great help for her.
Nasal congestion can also be treated with some specific nebulizer fluids with cortisone. They are used in human medicine too. I couldn't use it with Lola because that med would make her bleed from her nose, due to her chronic situation after the radiotherapy.

I do believe that a nebulizer is much better and more effective than a shower running in the bathroom. And it's more environment friendly too ;)

Hope your kitty is feeling better today!
 
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