- Joined
- Aug 15, 2015
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- 15
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A chlorambucil trial is useless. It takes several months for the drug to even have an effect, and during that time, your cat probably *will* "react badly" to it at first. Most have some degree of nausea. "Reacting badly" is not a reason for stopping and not a guage of whether or not the drug is working. (There are effective anti-nausea medications that usually completely eliminate the nausea. But you have to give them. You have to deal with all that.) You can't just "try" chlorambucil (leukeran). You have to make a commitment to it, based on a diagnosis. It is a serious drug with serious repercussions on the immune system, bone marrow, appetite, etc.
Those are the risks and trade offs you make if you know your cat has cancer. The side effects of treatment are not as bad as the cancer. But they are worse - much worse - than a non-cancerous disease, which your cat may just have, and which you have no way of knowing - ZERO - without a biopsy.
I don't know who the "online Yahoo vet" is but he is right. There is no way to tell IBD from lymphoma via bloodwork, an ultrasound, or anything else failing a biopsy. If two out of your three vets agree with that, they know what they're talking about.
Biopsies are safe procedures, within the context that every surgery is a risk. The risk with this particular surgery is minimal.
Those are the risks and trade offs you make if you know your cat has cancer. The side effects of treatment are not as bad as the cancer. But they are worse - much worse - than a non-cancerous disease, which your cat may just have, and which you have no way of knowing - ZERO - without a biopsy.
I don't know who the "online Yahoo vet" is but he is right. There is no way to tell IBD from lymphoma via bloodwork, an ultrasound, or anything else failing a biopsy. If two out of your three vets agree with that, they know what they're talking about.
Biopsies are safe procedures, within the context that every surgery is a risk. The risk with this particular surgery is minimal.