Conference misery::feline

    I didn't find any notes on Liver Cancer, but we have a couple of notes
    about Hepatic Lipidosis which is a liver disease.  Check out notes
    124.19 and topic 319 for more information along those lines.  I will
    keyword this note Liver_Cancer.
    
    Jo

    Pat...
    
    Please send my best wishes to your brother and his kitty!! Pam
    Gladding has a cat that just recently had Lipidosis and it was a
    very long recovery...but the kitty is doing great. I'm
    sure if you want more info...Pam would be more then willing to
    provide it.
    
    There was also a very detail article on Lipidosis in one of the
    recent Cat Fancy or Cat Magazines.    
    
    Please keep us posted...
    
    Sandy

    Pat,
    
    Michaela, my golden tabby persian, didn't have liver cancer, but did
    have feline hepetitis.  She was VERY sick for a few weeks, she finally
    started getting better, but then made a turn for the worst in one
    morning and died that night.  It turned out that the hepetitis was
    going away because of the treatments they were giving her, but a blood
    clot got loose from it and went to her lung.  
    
    Please keep us updated on your brother's cat's condition and what is
    going on.  let us know if it is indeed cancer of hepetitis.  If it's
    hepetitis, it CAN be treated.
    
    Holly
    

    Yep, Argus and Spiro both had liver cancer. I'm afraid that I havn't
    the strength to go into the details, but Argus's case is in the CANCER
    note and Spiro's was in a note about a high fevor (around
    thanksgiving).
    
    In Argus's case, his primary cancer was pancreatic, (which is usually
    the case) but the liver cancer was his cause of death. 
    
    In Spiro's case, his primary cancer was intestinal, but liver cancer
    was the cause of death.
    
    Both cats died within about week of showing symptoms, neither were in
    pain until the *very* end.
    
    I'm sorry I can't say more but both of these deaths are too fresh in my
    memory, coupled with the fact that my 13 year old Pip was just
    diagnosed with a muscel cancer.
    
    Deb

My brother had to put Rastus down yesterday morning.  He had Rastus home
with him Sat. & Sun. feeding liquids intravenously and trying to get
him to eat baby food or anything else as his weight has dropped drastically
(he was a huge cat a week ago).  Rastus was not improving and would not as his
liver cancer was irreversible the vet said.  Tom just wanted to have him home
for the weekend before making that final decision.  Rastus got to look out the
window a few times and sit on the porch while Tom shoveled a bit Sunday.  He
was just too ill to want to eat and even with forcing liquid into him with
injections, he was dehydrating.  His vet was very thoughtful and even 
called him Sunday morning to ask how Rastus was doing at home.

Tom was and is very depressed but glad he had Rastus home his last hours 
to give him extra TLC and to say goodbye.

Pat & Clan

    I feel so sorry for your brother - it is such a difficult decision to
    make even when it is the ONLY avenue left for us. Please pass
    my sympathies along to Tom. Rastus was very loved - and both he and Tom
    were two lucky guys.
    
    Pat

    
    
    Thanks, Pat.  I've sent him a special "Pet Loss" sympathy card which
    included part of a very nice poem Sandy M. sent me (I added some
    personal words to the poem relating to Rastus that only my brother knew
    about).  It is very hard for him to talk on the phone about his loss so
    I know he'll appreciate the card and poem.  Thanks, Sandy.
    
    Pat & Clan
    

    I'm so sorry to hear about this, but I'm glad that at least the kitty
    got to spend his last weekend at home instead of the hospital. 
    
    with sympathy,
    Deb

    
    
    My cat Shadow (11 years old this coming Labor day) started acting weird
    about a month ago.   She was constantly crying and acting like she was
    starving to death.   I fed her 1/3 can of Friskies Buffet in the
    morning and then again at night, with Purina Chow Mature Cat dry
    available at all times.   She had totally quit eating the Cat Chow
    Mature, but everytime I would feed her the can food, she would wolf it
    down and then come up to me sitting at the table eating dinner and try
    to get into my lap and eat off my plate.   I couldn't leave anything on
    the counter and walk into another room because she would jump on the
    counter and be eating this as well.  I noticed Tuesday a week ago that
    she was even having diarrhea problems.   So I called the vet and took
    her in last Tuesday.  Dr. Mulcahy put her on the scale and Shadow had
    lost almost 25% (from 7.5 lbs to 5 3/4 lbs) of her body weight since
    last August when she went in for annual check up and booster.    She
    mentioned that she would like to do what they call a geriatric blood
    test to try and determine what was going on.   She mentioned that it
    might be a thyroid problem, since some of the symptoms of thyroid
    problems was vocalizing all the time and acting hungry.   Well, we got
    the results of the blood test Thursday where she said that the Liver
    (enzyme?) levels were high. ~300 with normal range between 75 to 150.  
    She was quite perplexed by this because the liver levels were the only
    ones that were elevated.  Her thyroid, kidney, etc were all normal.  
    So now the plan of attack is for Shadow to eat K/D (2 tbsp.can morning
    and evening and dry available all day)   She did say that if Shadow was
    getting bored with the K/D canned food that Friskies Senior in the can
    can be substituted. We will re-run the test in a month to check the
    liver levels.
    
    So then this raised concerns about our vacation.  We will be leaving
    next Saturday for two weeks and I had planned on a neighbor dropping by
    and checking on Shadow every couple of days. So then I asked Dr.
    Mulcahy  about whether this would be OK or should I have Shadow boarded
    there so that they can keep an eye on her there.  Dr. Mulcahy said that
    we'd watch her over the next week to see how she does because overall,
    having Shadow stay in her own home with someone checking her would be
    better since no extra stress would be added onto her already stressed
    body.   Dr. Mulcahy said that with liver disease, the less stress the
    better.     
    
    So, now I'm really worried.   I did a search for all the topics on
    liver disease in this file and what I've read has really been
    frightening.   I love my little kitty and I don't want her to be sick.
    
    Sarah