Abbey's Case Study  

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Other Diseases/Conditions: Asthma/Allergies Story: In March of 2005, I thought I noticed my chunky girl was losing some weight. We had just made some diet chages due to another cat's food allergies so I decided I would just monitor her before rushing off to the vet. Suddenly it seemed like she was losing large amounts of weight overnight. In a 3-4 week period, she had dropped just over 3 pounds and I could feel her backbone. We scheduled a vet appointment ASAP. Her vet discovered a large mass in her lower intestine. He said it felt like it was outside of the intestine and was most likely an enlarged lymph node. He kep her for the afternoon and did x-rays, lab work and an aspirate of the mass. The aspirate slides were setn out and in a couple of days, we had the diagnosis of lymphoma. She was started on the COP protocol of vincristine, cytoxan and prednsione by the end of that same week. One week later when she went back for her 2nd treatment, the vet could no longer palpate the mass in her abdomen. She went through 6 weeks of the COP protocol and now goes for monthly visits only. There has been no return of the original mass and no new ones have been discovered. Her weight has stabilized at just over 10 pounds, her appetite remains good and by all appearances, she is a happy healthy cat. Abbey never seemed really sick, other than the weight loss. She had a small amount of diarrhea but no inappetance or vomiting prior to the diagnosis. Her only side effect from the chemo has been the loss of some fur and her whiskers. While I may miss her beautiful Ragdoll coat, i'm more than happy to stil have her here with me. Outcome: Abbey has responded beautifully to chemo and is doing great nearly 10 months past her diagnosis. We're looking forward to celebrating the one year anniversary of her diagnosis date on April 11, 2006. - By Deanie Abbey's Mom -

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