[sarab]

Hi all,

I've just found out that my beloved cat Cleo has mammary gland cancer. It has not yet spread to her lungs but it has to her lymph nodes.

I have to decide whether or not to put her through the two surgeries necessary to remove both sets of mammary glands and the lymph nodes in the area. My concern is that I don't want to put her through the trama and pain of surgery if it will not change to out come. There is a tumor that is about 2 to 3 centimeters in size, so typically this means she would only have 6 months to a max of one year, with or without surgery.

Has anyone out there been through this? Or had to go through major surgery with an older (11 years) cat?

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

Sara

 

[Ianthe]

I'm sorry, I do not have any great advice for you, I just wanted to say that I am so sorry you are going through this. *hugs*

 

[drjean]

Sara, I am so sorry to hear about your kitty. Mammary cancer is truly vicious in cats.

I have done a few of these surgeries, and they are awful. It is horribly painful, and as you said, this disease progresses in about 6 months with *or without* the surgery. X-rays can only detect masses that are at least 5 mm in size. So unfortunately, even though they did not *see* lung metastases on the x-rays, they are most likely already there, just very tiny. My personal feeling is that it is not usually worthwhile to put the cat through a major surgery that will not really help her, and can make her quite miserable. However that is just me personally and not a professional opinion. You should consider consulting with a cancer specialist; there may be new developments that I don't know about, since cancer treatment is an area I do not follow very closely.

I do know a good homeopath, Dr. Charlie Loops, in North Carolina who has good results treating cancer. He is listed in the directory at www.ahvma.org, if you would like to investigate some alternative therapies. He does work long-distance.

There are also herbs, like Essiac (www.ojibwatea.com is my best source), that are thought to fight cancer.

Also, you can do a few things to minimize the cancer's growth and help her feel better, including feeding only high protein canned food (no dry food, cancer loves carbohydrates), and supplementing her with high doses of antioxidants (see http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?a ... atsanddogs
BioSuperfood is reported to be good against cancer (in fact that is how it was developed), but I have only known one cat who had just started on it that turned out to have intestinal cancer. It did make him feel better at the end, but it did not save him.

Best wishes,
Dr. Jean

 

[sarab]

Thank you for the hugs Ianthe.

Dr. Jean, thanks for the information. I've spent the day doing research and talking via forums to many people. I've decided that the high quality, low carb diet is the way to go.

I was feeling like if I didn't go through with the surgery I wasn't doing anything to help, even though my vet isn't recommending it.

Now I'm going to focus on her diet and keeping her happy for as long as possible.

Thanks for caring and making a difference.

Sara

 

[Ianthe]

sarab- This will be a very difficult time....please feel free to come here for support. *more hugs*

 

[sarab]

Just one further question for Dr. Jean - I checked out the BioSuperfood website and they have three different formulations for pets.

1.BP Core F2+
2.BP Forte F3+
3.Combo

I was wondering which one you would suggest and what dosage.

Thanks again.

Sara