Treating Cat With Chemo

diamondally

Hi Sal,
Sorry to hear about Bob especially as he is only 4 years old.
Deciding whether to go ahead with Chemo is a difficult decision. Our cat has just completed 9 months of chemo which involved drips with sedation and oral pills. This started with weekly trips to our vet who is a 20 minute drive away as well as visits to the specialists over an hour away. This then moved to every two weeks. Whilst he was on chemo his lymphoma did not return but did reappear after a month of stopping.

We have now decided to limit treatment at the vets and our new protocol is chemo that is home administered. We felt that the stress of travelling and especially the sedation was becoming an issue for him. Throughout the whole treatment he has been happy, not in any obvious pain and behaving as he always has. Chemo in cats does not have the same impact as it does in humans although he did lose all his whiskers (it upset us more than him).

We do have to double glove when we give the pills and all his litter is hazardous waste that the vets have to dispose of. If you have very young children then the issues around this need to be thought through.

I think you are right to give it a try however the costs do quickly mount up. After a year I think we must be at about £3000 with the possibility of this chemo lasting for the rest of his life. We are lucky that our annual limit resets each year. His cancer is very rare so we have needed two trips to a specialist oncologist at our local vet school which cost a total of £1200.

You always have the option to stop a protocol if it isn't working or more importantly distressing Bob. For pets, always keep in mind that quality of life is more important than quantity of life. Hopefully you will get both. If you remember that then you wont go far wrong.

SallyUK

Thankyou Diamondally

Can I ask you where your cat's cancer is?

Your post was really helpful, so thank you for sharing.

I totally agree with you about quality of life being more important. As long as Bob isn't suffering in any way, then we'll do all we can for him.

He starts his chemo this coming Friday.

Sal
xx

diamondally wrote: »

Hi Sal,
Sorry to hear about Bob especially as he is only 4 years old.
Deciding whether to go ahead with Chemo is a difficult decision. Our cat has just completed 9 months of chemo which involved drips with sedation and oral pills. This started with weekly trips to our vet who is a 20 minute drive away as well as visits to the specialists over an hour away. This then moved to every two weeks. Whilst he was on chemo his lymphoma did not return but did reappear after a month of stopping.

We have now decided to limit treatment at the vets and our new protocol is chemo that is home administered. We felt that the stress of travelling and especially the sedation was becoming an issue for him. Throughout the whole treatment he has been happy, not in any obvious pain and behaving as he always has. Chemo in cats does not have the same impact as it does in humans although he did lose all his whiskers (it upset us more than him).

We do have to double glove when we give the pills and all his litter is hazardous waste that the vets have to dispose of. If you have very young children then the issues around this need to be thought through.

I think you are right to give it a try however the costs do quickly mount up. After a year I think we must be at about £3000 with the possibility of this chemo lasting for the rest of his life. We are lucky that our annual limit resets each year. His cancer is very rare so we have needed two trips to a specialist oncologist at our local vet school which cost a total of £1200.

You always have the option to stop a protocol if it isn't working or more importantly distressing Bob. For pets, always keep in mind that quality of life is more important than quantity of life. Hopefully you will get both. If you remember that then you wont go far wrong.