Biopsy results and One Month Ampuversary

It just dawned on me yesterday that I only put Kender’s biopsy results on the forums and not on her blog!  Things have been a little crazy around here lately.  My husband’s switched shifts at his job, which has turned us all upside down trying to adjust to the new schedule.  And my daughter celebrated her sixth birthday.  Plus we’ve been trying to cram in some fun before summer is over 😉

We finally got the immunohistochemical staining came back on August 22. She has tarsal lymphoma. There’s lots of info on typical lymphoma in cats out there, but tarsal lymphoma is pretty rare and there isn’t a ton of info on it.  My vet consulted an oncologist about it, who couldn’t give a very good idea of lifespan with or without treatment because it’s so uncommon. There’s a very high likelihood it’s already microscopically metastasized, since lymphoma is notorious for that. She said the chemo treatment she typically does is pretty aggressive – combo of vincristine, doxirubicin and cytoxan and spans about 6 months with a cost of roughly $3,500-4,500. Sometimes the cancer is so aggressive, the cat’s don’t even make it through all of the treatments.

This is pretty much the only thing I could find on feline tarsal lymphoma.  I wish there were more specifics about which treatment options resulted in which life spans.  I know even with that info, Kender could be totally different from all of them.  But it would give a rough idea at least.

At first, I had no idea what to do…and still don’t have a real clear idea.  I’m thinking a holistic approach to hold it off as long as possible is probably the best choice at this point.  After discussing it, hubby (Matt) and I both agree that chemo is not a great option for a variety of reasons.  When I spoke to my vet on 8/22/14 she had said she would discuss holistic ideas with one of her colleagues (who has recently been branching into that).  I was waiting to hear back before contacting anyone else.  But realize as I’m typing this how long ago that really was!  I am going to contact Dr. Loops tomorrow (since I’m almost positive they are closed today for Labor Day) for a consult and possibly contact a local holistic vet depending on how things go with Dr. Loops.   I looked through Dr. Loops supplements page.  There’s a ton of stuff to choose from on there.  So far, I’ve been giving her grape seed extract every night in some tuna.  We used that on one of our ferrets in the past who had recurring adrenal gland issues after surgery.

And also….yesterday was Kender’s ONE MONTH AMPUVERSARY!  Hooray!!  I’m really hoping she has many more ampuversaries, but seeing the statistics on lymphoma, I feel blessed to have had even one more month with her!  And as my husband said on my facebook post about the biopsy results (pardon the language):  “That cat is a stubborn bitch. She’ll probably live another 8 years just to spite the cancer.”  I hope he’s right 😉

Her hair is growing back in wonderfully.  She hops around pretty well and is getting better about clawing her way up onto things.  I still haven’t seen her get up to where I keep her food while she’s out of the spare room.  So I have to close her up in there periodically so that she can eat without the dog getting her food first.  I don’t think she minds it too horribly, though.  She goes in and out of there to sleep and lay around throughout the day.  She must be feeling friendlier these days…she actually lets our other cat, Dalamar, get near her much more often without the usually hissing and growling that used to happen!