Friday, April 2, 2010

Been off line for a month



Kitty woes !

My dear cat Floris appeared to have developed a vaccine-related sarcoma. I had never even heard of the existence of such things. After I got the diagnosis I searched the web on his prognosis and it was bad news ; they are highly malignant.
Now , since I am a cliinical pathologist, I know the drill of treating human sarcomas by heart.Clear excision , as far as possible, and radiation therapy afterwards. So I asked the vet to refer me to the Veterinary Faculty in Utrecht ( the only one here in the country).

There , they quickly made an appointment for a CTscan - CTcat - and he appeared to be clean of metastases; only a small possible remnant of the original tumor.
They advised to local brachytherapy - which is , basically , very topical radiotherapy. I delivered him there last week and yesterday I fetched him home.
I was worried sick! The guy was homesick and refused to eat for days. Fortunately they kept a good eye on him and finally coaxed him into eating and drinking.He seems to like sardines ... As soon as he was home, he was a VERY HAPPY kitty again. He is talkative , though , and a bit restless, but I trust that will be over soon( although I like the talking part).
The only immediate problem is that he seems to expect sardines again :-)
As you can see, he has still a mown part on his neck , where they had to mark the spot for injecting him ( the scar). It looks idiotic , but it does not worry either of us.

HUGE THANKS to the treating doctors at the University , for giving him a fighting chance against this tumor.

3 comments:

  1. Awww... poor kitty and poor you! :(

    I hope he heals quickly.

    Can I send him some sardines? :)

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  3. (Umm, I edited ...)
    Thank you Dale, but it is back to Whiskas and Hills KD by now for this guy!:-)

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