Making decision about treating cat's jaw cancer

great_lakes_mom
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 16:24:48 +0000

Totally right on the Veterinary Industrial Complex. Great phrase! What a timely post. My cat is in surgery this am, and I think is a bit insane. She has an open lesion from a mammary tumor, which I am learning is surprisingly common in elderly and especially Siamese cats. The tumors, not necessarily open ones. This is probably cancerous, and maybe there are metastases. Both my home vet and the one at the specialty clinic are saying removing the tumor is crucial as it is open. My vet is lower intervention than many, which is why I go to him. But…given her age, her renal disease…really? If I did not have a trip planned with my elderly mom coming up, and not wanting to perhaps leave the final decisions to others, I’d let nature take its course over the next few months.

They asked if I wanted to talk to oncology, to send the tumor to pathology, check the lymph nodes, to have further imaging done to check for possible metastasis. No, no no…Meanwhile her quality of life is ok right now, so it would be hard to put her down. My impression from the vet is that she probably will develop other tumors in the next year. We shall see. She is really old, 19 and very much my sweetie. Though that does not influence my feelings about the ethics of the situation.

What bothered me in the process, is the lack discussion of palliative care, which I’d expect with the any very elderly human getting into multi system failure.