Hello-

My name is Hattie and my 14/15 year old male DSH cat was diagnosed with an osteosarcoma in June of this year after a golf ball sized lump appeared on his shoulder blade almost literally overnight. He was presenting no other symptoms of being ill. The vet recommended amputation of his front right limb at the shoulder blade after doing x-rays that showed we caught it super early and it had not spread.

My cat (Jerry) had the amputation surgery a few days later. The biopsy showed it was actually not an osteosarcoma, but a chondrosarcoma (cartilage cancer). Anyway, Jerry came home with a ton of meds including Onsior. I gave him his dose and the very next day, I woke up to his blood curdling moans. We had purchased a huge cat cage to keep him safe during recovery (and away from my larger dog). He was laying inside his litterbox. Litter all over his face, he could not lift his head and he was making sounds I've never heard and animal or human make. He was in absolute pain. I put him on my lap and he gasped for air, gurgled, stopped breathing for periods, then gasped again. I rushed him back to the vet and was told after a quick exam, that he needed an immediate blood transfusion. They threw him in an oxygen chamber, he was, as my vet put it, "headed towards the light" on two occasions while they were scrambling to get a donor cat from their own clinic for the transfusion. Jerry ended up surviving and was even sitting up inside the oxygen chamber after the transfusion began. He stayed overnight and I picked him up the next day.

The vet's best assessment and after doing diagnostic tests, he told me that the Onsior I was given and gave to him, made him bleed internally via his intestines. After injections to stop bleeding, etc...Jerry was sent home with me. His recovery after the initial emergency trip back to the vet, has been very smooth. My old man kitty can jump up on top of the fridge, outrun the dogs, and run up and down stairs. His "personality" has completely changed though (for the better, IMO). He never used to really want to cuddle or be held and now I can do it for hours. He even spoons with me all night and stays put! 

SO....the issue we are having is that he consistently scratches and rips open various sites around where his incision is/was. His hair has all grown back along the incision line, but he has huge clumps of hair missing and bloody, scabby areas all around it. It got extra bad a few weeks ago, so off we went back to the vet. He said that he thinks that Jerry is having constant tingling sensation at the incision site due to nerve damage where he had to severe them, and so he itches or scratches to get relief. Around this time he also started pooping outside his litter box almost daily. Vet gave me a nurtureCalm cat collar for the pooping, and I am NOT kidding, my kitty went poop in the litter box immediately upon putting it on him. He has not had a single incidence of pooping outside of it since wearing the collar (it needs to be replaced every 30 days). For the bloody scabs and constant scratching, vet gave injection of Triamcinolone which was supposed to help for 7-12 days. It only worked for 3. Jerry totally left the scabs alone for three days, after that, he started scratching and ripping them open once again. Back to the vet and was given an RX for Prednisolone which I crush and put in his food daily. The objective is to ween him down gradually to a dose every other day as needed. Again, these pills worked for about three days and his scabs started healing up again, then boom....ripping them open once again even on the pills. 

I feel so badly for my cat. He recovered so nicely from surgery, he is taking being a three-legger like a champ. It isn't slowing him down at all. He purrs, comes to get love, grooms, and scarfs down all his food - what an appetite. I don't know what to do because these second option pills aren't working. He rips his scabs open every day. It makes me sad to know he is always itchy or tingly or in pain at the surgical site. Has anyone experienced this after surgery? What worked? Is there something safe and holistic I can try? My husband has been making him shirts to cover most of the scabs to create sort of a barrier between his nails and the scabs when he scratches them open. Should I try a cat Thundershirt? 

Any advice is appreciated. I want to bring him some relief so badly so he can live out the rest of his years cancer free and with dignity.

Thanks,

Hattie