[rwunsch]

My 9 year old male cat has a tumor in his bladder about 1 x 1.5 x 1.5 cm. He has had blood in his urine for the last 3 weeks and has had antibiotics, injections, urine taken with a needle and I hate torturing him any more. The vet has offerred to do exploratory surgery and said he thought he might be able to buy a yearif the tumor could be removed but it is in an area of the bladder that makes that risky. w/o surgery maybe 3 to 4 months. He is such a sweet little cat it would kill me to put him through more fear and pain and then nothing more could be done. I'm seriously considering doing everything I can to make him comfortable and happy for as long as possible and no more terror or pain. Has anyone had a cat with bladder cancer who can share their experiences? ... Rob

 

[Empath]

Rob, welcome to Cat Forum. You may be able to get more responsive answers in our Health & Nutrition forum. I'll move it there for you.

 

[drjean]

So sorry to hear this sad news! Unfortunately this is a nasty cancer with a poor prognosis. I have had a few patients with it, they didn't do well. We just lost one last week to seizures, probably from metastasis of the bladder tumor to the brain.

There are two holistic vets I know who are working with cancer and having pretty good success. Dr. Rob Silver in Boulder, CO (303-494-7877) and Dr. Charles Loops in North Carolina (919-542-0442). I know that Charlie works long-distance, not sure about Rob but maybe worth giving a call.

Personally I would not put a cat through a risky and painful surgery, only to have him spend most of the rest of his life trying to recover from it. He would be miserable. I am in total agreement with your decision not to go there.

There are a couple of reasonably easy and harmless things you can do to help him feel a little better for now and might help delay the cancer's progress. First, give him only canned or homemade food (assuming he likes it) because cancer LOVES carbohydrates, and dry food is loaded with carbs. A "CAtkins" diet will starve the cancer and may slow its growth. Second, if he'll tolerate it without a fuss, add antioxidants like Ester C, Vitamins E and A, and nutritional powerhouses like blue-green algae (such as biosuperfood). See http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?a ... atsanddogs
for details on types and dosages. Cancer-fighting takes mega-doses; you can hardly hurt him with these at this point.

I hope your vet is willing to medicate him adequately for pain and stress; other than that, just love him and spend as much time with him as you can. It's so difficult to face these situations, but we owe it to our furry family to be there for them and to make the best decisions we can. Any decision made from a loving heart is never wrong.

Hang in there!
Dr. Jean