ABQ2015
Full time employment: Posting here.
My cat was diagnosed with mammary gland cancer in January. She had a larger surface tumor that was almost 3 cm in diameter - the vet found it when turning my cat over at her annual exam to trim the claws. My vet removed the tumor two days later but the biopsy came back malignant. We had an ultrasound done and the oncologist recommended radical mastectomy (which is performed in two "chain" surgeries) followed by several weeks of chemo and of course, follow up ultrasounds. The ultrasound also showed that she had chronic pancreatitis which my vet had suspected. Most older cats tend to have several medical issues simultaneously.
Given that my cat is 14 going on 15, is not a good patient, has the pancreatitis, the tumor was quite large so success rate with treatment will be much less, and two surgeries and chemo is a lot for a older cat, I decided not to treat. Money was also a factor. I've spent almost $2K to date on surgery and ultrasound and would have to spend $5-10K more for treatment but the idea of putting my cat through all of these medical procedures was also a big factor. If we were talking about one more surgery and no chemo or chemo alone, it would probably be a different story. I do have her on steroids for the pancreatitis. So far she is doing okay. Also my vet said that she had not seen good results with surgery alone, but she was probably referring to larger tumors. Given that your cat's tumor is very small, her chances of surviving several years may be good. But I would be careful about having the vets suck you into more and more procedures if things don't go well - my vet is not too bad but the specialists I don't trust. The same oncologist had a co-worker treat his 19 year old cat who died during the chemo. I've been through this a couple of times where I treated my pets for way too long and their final year of life was not high quality. I feel guilty about this and have vowed not to do it again. That's great that you were monitoring her closely and caught it early and she is still relatively young for a cat at age 12. Good luck!
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thank you for all the well wishes.
