Charity's Case Study  

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Other Diseases/Conditions: When her immunity was lowered she presented with herpes(eye) and Chlamydia (eye). Story: When I discovered those horrible lumps, I knew instantly that I was dealing with lymphoma since I lost another kitty 2 years before. I was very proactive and started her on chemo within 2 weeks. Charity was 8 years old. She was on the Wisconsin Protocol - Elspar and vincristine (week 1); cytoxan (2); vincristine (3) and doxyrubicin(4). Then repeated minus the Elspar. This was supposed to drop to every other week and continue for 6 months. Her white blood count kept dropping, and the weeks between chemo got longer and longer. And we were also battling the eye infections. She did go into remission immediately after the first dose. That was in May of 2004. She is still alive and in remission but we were never able to complete the 6 month protocol. After waiting 8 weeks between chemo injections, our vet felt that we would be hurting her too much to continue. Also, she had stopped eating and had a PEG tube inserted. The big message I want to send is that it isn't a walk in the park for all kitties on chemo. The chemo/vincristine made her very sick and seemed to kill the lymphoma too. Without a doubt it saved her. Without a doubt I would do it again. But, I want to send the message that chemo can make kitties sick. I would say, that if your kitty has chemo related symptoms, let your doctor know and monitor them very carefully. The results can be wonderful and you are treading on a tightrope. Bottom line, it isn't any better to lose your kitty to chemo than it is to lose them to lymphoma. Outcome: Alive, healthy and well. She still has her feeding tube but it will be removed in the next couple of days. She has had it for over 8 months. She is 9 years old. - By Jane Charity's Mom -

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