Ann's Story
by Ann's cat mom
I had a whole book written here at one point but I accidentally deleted it. Here is the quick version
In October 2016 my cat, Ann seemed low energy and looked like she had lost weight. She was getting older, so I wasn’t that worried. Then I noticed a large lump in her neck. Took her to the vet and they suspected lymphoma after doing an X-ray and finding a mass in her abdomen.
We took her to an internist who did a fine needle aspirate and she was diagnosed with large cell gastrointestinal lymphoma. The internist also found 3 enlarged lymph nodes and a very small growth (less than 1 cm) on her intestines. The neck lump turned out to be benign and is the only reason we caught the cancer early on because I wouldn’t have taken her to the vet when I did if she never got it.
She then went to an oncologist the next day and started 6 months of CHOP chemotherapy.
The hardest part of chemo was getting her to eat. Human palates change a lot during chemo, and I think a cat’s does as well. I switched her food up every time she turned her nose up at it. She lost some weight but for the most part was able to maintain.
She responded very well to chemo and was in complete remission after the first month of treatment.
It is 3 years since her diagnosis and I am thrilled to say that she is still with us and is back to her pre lymphoma weight of 6lbs (she’s tiny).
I think she has done well because it got caught relatively early (doctor estimates stage 2 but we didn’t have it formally staged). Not because I’m such a great cat guardian but because of the huge, un-ignorable neck lump.
She shows no sign of relapse at this time and is enjoying being spoiled even more than she was previously!
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ADDRESS -
Washington, USA
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Ann
[ click photos to enlarge ]
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