Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hi all,
A quick recap on my furry kiddo - Banksy (~7 year old female cat) has a vaccine induced sarcoma on her back right leg and it was amputated successfully in May 2023. We immediately started her on chemo since the margins from her surgery were a little tight. The cancer did end up metastasizing in her lungs at the beginning of 2024. As of today, Banksy is doing wonderfully. High energy, eating well, sweet as can be. She quit responding to chlorambucil so the oncologist switched her to palladia. Today we found out it's still not stopping the growth in her lungs. There's two small nodules they're worried about.
They recommended today that we start her on doxorubicin. Other options were carboplatin or to up her palladia dosage and add back in chlorambucil. When asking the doctor which she recommended, she said all of them were 50/50 which was no help at all. I know that doxorubicin is no joke. The risks are lengthy and I can't really find anywhere online or on this forum that says it's worth the side effects.
The decision fatigue when it comes to a pet's health is overwhelming. I'm also dealing with the fact that I asked the doctor not to give me an estimated life expectancy and - I kid you not - her next sentence was she guessed we're looking at months, not years. I still can't believe she did that, I know anyone on this forum can sympathize with not wanting someone to "guess" at how long we have with our animal. Another doctor said months, a different one has told me 3-5 years. No one actually knows, that's why I didn't want her to speculate and she went and did it anyways. So now I'm faced with making this decision and fighting the grieving process of possibly only having her for a few more months.
She also said we could focus on quality of life and keeping her comfortable. That was laughable since right now she's as happy as can be and is on chemo. I know she might have said it for financial reasons, and my grief might be causing me to have misplaced anger, but it felt like a slap in the face to give up on her like that.
I mainly just want to get all my thoughts down and would love to hear any experiences anyone has that are similar to this. Is doxorubicin successful on a sarcoma? Can upping the dosage of a current medication that isn't stopping cancer growth help? I asked the oncologist these same questions and she shrugged and said we can't know anything for sure. I'm going back tomorrow to hopefully get a second opinion but for now, please help Tripawd community!
Hi Grace and Banksy,
First, it's really awesome that your girl is doing so amazingly well! I can't believe it's been a whole year since she was diagnosed. She really is showing the strength and resilience she's made of, even when mets are trying to rob her of more time with you.
I'm sorry you're at a crossroads with the treatment decisions. Lung mets are so unpredictable. Sometimes you can slow them down, sometimes you can't. Because cancer behaves so differently from animal to animal, it's hard to predict what treatments will absolutely work to stop the mets, and which ones won't.
What I can tell you is that in all my time at Tripawds, we generally see that once mets are on a treatment resistant course, things generally play out the same. They slow down the body, and make breathing uncomfortable. Then we are forced to confront the last decision of when to say when. It's pretty sad and brings me back to when we were there with our Jerry.
Thankfully you are not there yet, and there is no telling when you will be. So it doesn't really matter which vet's prediction is right, because neither probably is. Banksy is already defying the odds so she's in uncharted territory.
Making a treatment choice is an individual decision and nobody here will judge you for whatever path you take. Some of us are good with just focusing on keeping our Tripawd comfortable at a time like this (that was me). Some of us have to know that we are leaving no stone unturned, and will pursue treatments until we are clearly impacting quality of life. If you are that kind of person, then maybe the doxorubicin is worth a try.
As you know it IS a harsher treatment. So what studies show there is any kind of chance that it can help reduce mets? Did the vet cite any studies? That's what i would like to know about.
Also, did the vet mention anything like the new tumor removal procedures out there, like the MIMIC therapy? I don't know if it's being done on cats yet but hopefully it has. It's a really low impact way to blast those tumors into oblivion with minimal impact on quality of life. Treatment cost is not inexpensive, but when it works it's beautiful. I would absolutely see if she's a candidate, if pursuing treatment is where you believe you are headed.
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