Rolly has pancreatic cancer

[runekeeper]

I hope it's okay that I make a new topic regarding my sick kitty now that I know what's wrong with him. Thankfully, the weather was fine and I was able to get Rolly in for his ultrasound. What was found was a golf-ball-sized mass in his abdomen, several little nodules here and there on some of his organs, and several of the organs in his belly (pancreas, intestines, and spleen) basically stuck together. I kind of blanked when I heard "mass," but what I remember is that the primary tumor is most likely pancreatic in nature, as this kind of growth along with the other smaller lumps is almost always pancreatic in nature. If I recall correctly, the cancer was called a carcinosarcoma, and I was told that neither chemo nor surgery would do much for Rolly (though I likely would not have sought those anyway). Also, the first vet was wrong - his belly is full of fluid, and that's why he's bloated and why he gained weight despite not eating much. As horrible as it is of me to say this, in spite of my sadness, I feel a small sense of relief. Not that I want my poor kitty to leave me, but being told nothing could be done and that care will be palliative. I say it's a relief because I don't have to put Rolly through the barrage of tests like I did with Caspurr, trying to find out what's wrong, leaving her with strangers for days at a time, only to have her be terminal anyway. I'm thankful that Rolly's problem - though incurable - is clear and I don't have to subject him to anything else. I can keep him home with me probably until it's time for him to say goodbye.I was also glad to hear that Rolly is not in any pain from any of this. The vet explained to me that how long he lives depends on how much he eats, and considering he is eating maybe a spoonful of canned food a day, I'm thinking about appetite stimulants for him. I'm not sure if eating more will change his current behaviors and make him want to move more or not. Does anyone here have experience with feline pancreatic cancer? Would appetite stimulants be a good idea? From what I was told and what I have read, prognosis for a kitty with this kind of cancer varies from weeks to months from the time of diagnosis. He's not vomiting, so he won't need an anti-emetic, and while he is nibbling at his food, he needs to eat more. If he has to leave me, it won't be because he starves to death.

 

[runekeeper]

Also, I'd like to ask something regarding Rolly's behavior. He doesn't want any attention - if I pet him or hold him for too long, he'll get up and move away from me. I know this is due to the cancer, but it's so heartbreaking to see my kitty that used to love attention all of a sudden not wanting anything to do with me. I feel like he hates me. I would love to get in as much snuggling as possible while he's still here with me, but I don't want to annoy him when he's not well. How do you deal with a withdrawn cat? Do you lavish them with attention anyway, or do you leave them alone? Rolly wants to do little more than sit on the floor or sit in the garage, all by himself. He might look at me when I call his name, but that's it.

 

[farleyv]

Oh I am so very sorry to hear this.   I can understand your thoughts on having it be a bit of a relief.  Indecision is an awful burden to carry. 

If your kitty will take a stimulant for the appitite, and your vet agrees that would be good.  But if you end up having to force him to take it, then I would reconsider.  Having worked in a nursing home, sometimes extra measures only make the patient more uncomfortable as the body shuts down.

Do you have a nice warm place for him to lay?  You might want to consider a heated cat bed.  Warmth is very comforting to cats.

As far as him not wanting to be loved on, play by his rules.  Do not force it.  When I am not feeling well, I don't want anyone even talking to me sometimes.  This is the only way he can tell you.  It may pass, and you will find him next to you on the couch. 

I will keep you in my prayers.  Your kitties were lucky to have such a caring person to call their own.

God Bless

 

[runekeeper]

Unfortunately, I never got the chance to give the meds a go. Rolly seemed to be particularly bad tonight, so I ended up taking him to the ER vet and she said he probably had days left to live (he had somehow become more bloated with fluid, but was losing body mass and was very dehydrated), so I made the tough decision to let my poor baby go. I will talk about it more later in Crossing The Bridge.

 

[otto]

Oh I'm so sorry for your loss of your beloved Rolly. Letting him go was the most loving and unselfish act of all. I didn't see this before, I was still watching your other thread. That's just how it went with my Tolly . He got a little big around the middle, and then kept getting bigger, my vet sent us to Cornell where he was diagnosed with fast spreading carcinoma. I brought him home and gave him all the love he could take until he told me it was time. From the day of his first symptom until the day he left me was only 19 days.

Hugs to you, as Rolly makes his way to get his wings. I'm so sorry.

 

[runekeeper]

I'm so sorry your kitty had to suffer similarly. If I may ask, did Tolly also have pancreatic cancer, or did he have something different? So odd that our cats had similar illnesses and even similar names. He was also diagnosed at a nearby animal clinic (I took him to Colonial, which I think is very close to Cornell). I just can't believe how quickly Rolly went downhill. On the 1st of the month, he was perfectly normal in terms of appearance and behavior. It was on the 3rd I noticed his bloated belly - for him, it was only a week from the first symptom to letting him go. I can't believe something that was growing inside his body for months could drive him into the ground so quickly. I question if I let him go too soon, despite the bad shape he was in, but hopefully in time I can make peace with myself and the choice I made for him. I was so hoping they could both see their 15th birthdays (Caspurr and Rolly were siblings), but I guess Caspurr wanted her brother to join her on the Bridge. So screwed up - both my sibling kitties were diagnosed with different, rare feline cancers (as far as I know, lung and pancreatic cancers are rare in cats).

 

[otto]

The oncologist just said it was carcinoma. I don't remember pancreas being mentioned. All his blood work was perfectly normal at the time, she tapped the fluid and made the diagnosis from that.

Tolly had a history of liver disease and infections brought on by taking phenobarbital for so many years (he had seizures) but at the time his cancer showed up, his liver numbers were in normal range. He also had periodic episodes of diarrhea illness brought on by an inability to pass fur balls. I gave him so much of that petroleum based hairball stuff, in my heart I feel almost sure it was that stuff that was the cause of his cancer, but of course I will never know. He struggled with health issues most of his life. In the end, though he was only 12, and it tore my heart out to lose him, I was glad he didn't suffer with something long and drawn out. He was such a brave boy, and such a lamb with all the things that he had to have done to him over the years, it was right that his final illness was swift and pain free.

What happened after Cornell was I kept him comfortable and tried to tempt his appetite, like you did with Rolly. The last day Tolly really ate anything was Thanksgiving Day (2011), I roasted a turkey breast for him, how Tolly loved his turkey breast, I have a video of it, that I cherish. He stayed cheerful and playing right up through most of that weekend. By Sunday though he had gotten so big he couldn't move well, or make it to the litter box. I put a box in my bathroom for him but he wouldn't use it, so I simply carried him down to the litter boxes and back up the stairs again every few hours.

On Monday I brought him in to be drained. This was the last ditch effort. We hadn't done it before because draining the fluid like that usually causes the kidneys to fail. And that was just what happened to Tolly.

They drained an enormous amount of fluid, it was a shock to see how thin he really was. And it was obvious, when I brought him home that evening that he felt bad. Oh I felt just awful that he had to go one more night, it was the only night he really suffered, but I felt just terrible about it. If I had known, really known, how badly it was going to make him feel I would have just let him go that day. But I didn't know. He made it through the night though, and I promised him I would set him free to be with his Bibbs and his Ootay first thing in the morning, and so I did. He was SO HAPPY to be going, it was hard to grieve for him at first.

I'm sorry I didn't mean to make this be about me and Tolly, I guess I got carried away. I do understand how you feel though and I hope Tolly's story has helped you know that you absolutely did the right thing today for Rolly. And I know Rolly and Caspurr are now together again, for always.

I don't live in Ithaca, but Cornell is only a 2 hour drive for me. Tolly was there many times over the years, and I was there twice with Ootay in her last year too. What a wonderful wonderful place.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

• OMG, Runekeeper, I am so, so sorry.  How horrible this must be for you to lose two of your babies within such a short time period
  
  .  I can hardly believe it
  
  .  And as you said, both to rare cat cancers.  It's just so strange. 

But now Rolly is with his sister and no longer in any pain.  Rest in peace, Rolly

 

[cat daddy]

I am new to this site....but I saw your posting and am so sorry for your loss.  We get so attached to our feline companions that it is a very sad thing to see them suffer.  But sometimes when their suffering becomes severe we are actually doing a loving thing by letting them go.  My cat was just diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas and I am probably soon be facing the same situation and decision making that you had.  

I want to think my loving cat had a happy 15 + years.   I gave him the best care and love I could.  Sure, in retrospect I might have done some things differently, but all said and done ...it has mostly been a good time we have had together....and he will be missed very much.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and feelings as they are helping me deal a little better with things.

Best wishes!

 

[runekeeper]

The great thing about pets is they ask very little of us. Food, water, warmth, shelter, and most of all love. Many people might wish they did things differently for their kitties; some wish they could have given their cats a bigger, more spacious home but couldn't afford to move out of their one-bedroom apartment. Others wish they had the money to buy their cats the best quality food, but sometimes all you can afford is Friskies and Meow Mix. If a cat has lived to be 15, I'd say you've done everything right. This is not to say that a kitty with the misfortune of falling ill and dying young isn't well cared for, but just that a cat doesn't live for a decade and a half with a lousy owner. Sounds like your kitty has had a good life with you, and I think he'll let you know when he's ready to cash in his chips.

 

[heartcats]

This is my first post on this forum.   I'm writing this through tears because yesterday I had my beloved cat, Rupert, put to sleep because of his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.  He was twelve.  I guess it's human nature to second guess our decisions and today I'm struggling with my conscience.  

A brief history goes like this: Early last Fall, I noticed that Rupert was losing weight despite an adequate diet.  He was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and mild pancreatitis.  We were giving him transdermal methimazole to his ear and oral medications and change of diet for his pancreatitis.  He seemed to improve on this regimen, but in January he seemed to be losing even more weight. He used to be a sixteen pound cat but dropped down to ten pounds in a matter of a few months. The vets suspected another process going on with him, but his blood work kept coming back normal.  He was put on y/d in January and although this controlled his hyperthyroidism, he was still slowly dropping in weight.  Last week  I made the decision to send him for I-131 therapy  for his thyroid problem, but the internal medicine specialist at the clinic wanted to do further investigation, suspecting that there may be something else going on with him.  Rupert had the ultrasound done yesterday by the specialist and although his blood work was basically normal, they found that one lobe of his pancreas was inflamed and the other lobe had a mass which was involving the liver.   They were 90% sure it was a malignant tumour.  Prognosis was two weeks to eight months survival, but his appetite had diminished so much in the last week that we were syringe feeding him because he was so thin (he weighed 8 lb. yesterday).  Even his face and skull appeared to have shrunk.   My family had a discussion and we decided to say goodbye.

I can't stop crying.  I have to remember the words of my son on the drive home.  "He wasn't living anymore. He was dying.  He was too nice a cat to watch him suffer."    

I just wish he was here right now.  I'm hurting and missing him so much. 

Thanks for listening.

 

[runekeeper]

I'm so sorry to hear about your Rupert. When it comes to the care and treatment of our fuzzies, no one second-guesses the choices made more than we do. Even if everyone and their mother tells you that you did what was best, you still sit and wonder if that's actually true. Amazing how things can go so differently between cats with the same kind of cancer. It sounds like Rupert's cancer presented with symptoms for a few months, but my Rolly went right downhill within a matter of days. It still breaks my heart to think that while I was caring for my Caspurr with her lung cancer, her brother had this awful disease growing inside him at the same time

Your son is right, though. I know it can be so hard to accept letting one's pets go, even when they're terminal. But remember, when we allow them to pass with a bit of veterinary assistance, it's one final act of love we do for them. Rather than letting them die slowly, we can let them go peacefully before they start to suffer. It hurts to think about now, but I promise that, over time, it will get a little easier and you'll be able to think about Rupert and laugh rather than cry. It took me the longest time to be able to even look at photos of my late kitties without tearing up because I missed them so much... and I still do. But now I can see pictures of them and smile and say, "I remember when Caspurr used to do that. She was such a loon" or "Amazing how fat Rolly got over the years."

 

[heartcats]

I am so sorry about the loss of both of your cats. That must have been very difficult.

There will always be a trade-off when owning our pet animals.  For the love and enjoyment they gave us during their lifetime, there will be unfathomable pain when they leave us.  It's the price we pay for their affection, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

I am hoping the next few weeks go by quickly so I will be able to look at his pictures again and talk about his silly antics.  He left us with a lot of great memories. 

Thank you to this forum for allowing us to support each other in our grief.

Anna

 

[goholistic]

I'm so sorry for your loss @Heartcats. Will you do us the honor of posting a tribute to Rupert on our Crossing the Bridge forum? You can tell us about his personality and post a picture.

 

[kanonlin]

I am new to here as well, and I have two cats. One of them had bone cancer (osteosarcoma) and had his hind leg removed. It is a very rare cancer and we took him to a oncologist to save him.

Our second cat now been diagnosis with Pancreatic cancer as well just after 2 months of the amputation surgery. She lost weight and stopped eating. She loves food and will do comfort eating because she has no other hobbies! She went from 14 pounds to 9 pounds (I put her back in 10 pounds now) and we took her to our local vet immediately. They found a tumour around 4 cm big in her intestines and did an ultrasound and biopsy. 1 week later. They thought it was lynphoma, and we got a report to confirm it was definitely cancer. We took her immediately back to our oncologist who saved our first cat for treatment and surgery. After being referred back to them, she was admitted immediately and had a CT Scan and surgery the next day. In the CT scan, they confirmed 3 tumours (not 1), at the liver, spleen and intestines

When they opened her up, they found more smaller masses, and managed to removed the one at the spleen and other smaller masses. They told me any further removal of the masses means we will lose her. She was hospitalised for around 2 days and her appetite improved and even hit 11 pounds!

Now the lab report on the masses they removed come back, and confirm is pancreatic cancer. Without treatment, she only has 2-3 months. With chemo, they can extend to 6 months. We will try 2 types of drug (I'll get the name later), first type is kill the smaller masses, and 3 weeks later, will try a combination of both drug, to help to shrink the liver tumour. Our vet told us is lucky she does not have liquid in her belly, and she is still willing to eat (I feed her every hour though). But since we discovered the cancer, not knowing what type, we know we will lose her due to the weight loss. And any medication will only double what she has left. She is only 5 as well.

We are devastated to have 2 cats having cancer nearly at the same time ( 2 months apart), but we will give it a try with chemotherapy and see how it goes. It seems many cat with pancreatic cancer did not go down the chemo route because it was too late. We are going to give it a try, and at least, we know if chemo works at all.