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- Jan 13, 2018
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My cat was diagnosed with small cell lymphoma via FNA back in late November. He is 14 years old (12.8 lbs.), and for many years we had trouble getting him to eat wet food. We believe that his diet of mostly dry food and also allergies and and intolerance of certain food contributed to this condition. Up until several months ago, he intermittently had sniffles and coughed, and we always thought those symptoms were related to the chronic feline herpes virus that he contracted when he was a kitten. His coughing became more regular about a year ago and that's when we started changing his diet a lot as we began to think that maybe he had allergies. Several elimination diets later, we discovered that chicken and seafood made his respiratory symptoms worse, and he also started to vomit more frequently. The doctors say that allergies don't present themselves with respiratory symptoms, but as soon as we started feeding him LID food, the respiratory symptoms 100% abated, but the vomiting continued, and after a week of daily vomiting, we took him to the vet. After the testing, but before visiting an oncologist, we had been instructed by his primary to continue feeding him LID food, but to try a novel protein. We immediately began feeding him Nature's Variety Instinct LID rabbit and no dry food, and his transformation began as his appetite increased and vomiting decreased. Then his oncologist prescribed Leukeran (2.5 mg. five consecutive days, then every other) and Prednisolone (5 mg. every day). He stopped vomiting his food, and he gained back any weight that he had lost. He is very playful, and his body looks muscular. His stool is perfectly formed, but sometimes he has a hard time passing it. Once he did vomit saliva when he was straining. We are giving him some canned pumpkin to counteract that constipation. After one month, his blood work was a lot better. We are hopeful for remission, but very concerned about long-term use of the drugs.
In the case of our cat, we truly believe that his diet had much to do with his illness. My cat's inflammation may also have been related to some of the other things that are found in cat food--carrageenan, guar gum, etc., but it's hard to tell--at least I know his current food doesn't have any of those things in it. We believe the first mistake we made was feeding him all the dry food that he requested for most of his life up until a few months ago. It didn't matter that it was premium dry food. Like a lot of cats, our cat is fussy, so it took a lot of effort to change his diet, but we are glad we tried.
In the case of our cat, we truly believe that his diet had much to do with his illness. My cat's inflammation may also have been related to some of the other things that are found in cat food--carrageenan, guar gum, etc., but it's hard to tell--at least I know his current food doesn't have any of those things in it. We believe the first mistake we made was feeding him all the dry food that he requested for most of his life up until a few months ago. It didn't matter that it was premium dry food. Like a lot of cats, our cat is fussy, so it took a lot of effort to change his diet, but we are glad we tried.