On Mon, 24 Jun 2013 21:18:25 -0400, buglady
wrote:

On 6/24/2013 7:24 PM, wrote:
We are struggling with what to do, including whether to have her put to sleep, and if so, when.

As far as trying to save or prolong her life, the checkup and tests ran a few hundred dollars, which we can afford, but costs over $1,000 would be difficult or unrealistic for us.

Any advice would be appreciated.

.............I just went through this same agony with a cat
diagnosed/confirmed as having nasal lymphoma. A cat who won't smell
won't eat. Appetite stimulant worked and she put on weight. She was on
steroids but, in reality, those only have an effect for a short amount
of time. Cats resist mouth breathing. As my vet put it, they'd rather
breathe through a straw than open the mouth to breathe. She already was
doing that occasionally when I stressed her out with the daily pill. A
tumor was also forming under her eye by this time and she would
occasionally leak bloody serum out of her eyes. We had struggled for a
long time with a secondary bacterial infection, which we finally beat
with a new med. But the poor thing had had stuff crammed or squirted
down her throat for about 2 months and was heartily sick of it. Not to
mention subQs occasionally and once being in hospital for IV meds/fluids.

And a rhinoscopy and biopsy which ran me a thou, but I decided that I
needed the extra diagnostics to verify that it was cancer. That I
wouldn't be happy if I didn't know. The nose is a restricted area to
work in and my vet, like most vets, didn't have the tools to get a
biopsy. The pathology report took so long to come back combined with
primary treating vet at speciality clinic being out of town that 2 weeks
went by before he bothered to call back, which was days after he
returned to town. I had been willing to try an oral chemo drug, but by
the time he called it was too late - she was over the bridge. Just as
well I guess as Leukeran is related to mustard gas and had to be handled
with gloves. I could not picture how I was going to get that down her
throat in one go.

When the appetite stimulant wore off the steroids didn't do a thing WRT
eating. And she would look at me suspiciously and run whenever I got
near her. She'd also park herself in one spot and not move when she
wasn't drugged up. I just got to feeling that without the drugs she'd
be just as happy to leave. And when cats make up their minds, they go.

Despite her cancer, otherwise you wouldn't know she was sick. So I
struggled, as you are, with the concept of putting a cat to sleep who
didn't look all that horrible. Weight was good, coat was gorgeous, what
a horrible horrible irony.

But eventually the tumor (which already made her lift her head to
swallow food) would block off enough of the nasal passage in the back to
make breathing through her nose almost impossible. And by the time she
would be mouth breathing all the time she would be in terrible distress.

I felt at the time that it was too early. But this was one I didn't
want to be late on and didn't want to risk not having a vet available on
the weekend or holiday. So I sent her on.

I'd take your kitty into the vet and have him check breathing, number of
respirations per minute, whether breathing is shallow or not, and have
another talk. My father died of lung cancer and told me it hurt to
breathe. Cats hide pain pretty well. But if she's not shallow
breathing at this point, she's probably doing pretty well. ASk vet what
signs you could monitor that would tell you she's in distress.

That's about all you can do.
Good luck to you and your kitty.

buglady
take out the dog before replying

It's a decision that you just can't win. Either you're going to feel
awful that you euthanized your cat too soon, or you're going to feel
awful that you made the cat suffer because you couldn't bear to let
go. Just be prepared to feel awful and do the best you can.

I also had a cat, my favorite, come down with a leukemia at around age
15. He had collapsed and almost died. My vet said that if I wanted to
save him I would have to take him to the specialty vet and I did so.
They said that he could live for another two years with a decent
quality of life, so I had them do what they could. After four very
expensive days (several thousand $) I came to get him and he was
petrified and just miserable looking. He also had the worst case of
diarrhea I can imagine.

I had to alternate giving him prednisone and leukeran, with the gloves
and all. I hated having to get those pills down his throat and he
hated it as well. He only lived for maybe five more months, and he
never climbed the cat tree again so I have to assume that he was
nauseous the whole time.

I would not do it again that way. Maybe I will make myself miserable
next time by doing it too soon, but I will not make a trusting
companion suffer like that.

Do what you think is best and then you know that at least you did your
best. That's a minor comfort, but the best I can offer. You have our
purrs.