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Anyone do chemo for a pet?
We had a tumor removed from my cat's chest a few weeks ago. It turns out it was cancer. The margins were clean meaning they got the entire tumor and some tissue around it and that surrounding tissue had no cancer.
The vet says this particular cancer is aggressive but that she feels if we did chemo we'd have a good chance at making sure it never comes back. She also said chemo in pets is a lot less aggressive and doesn't make the pet sick like it does for humans. She encouraged us to get an opinion from a vet that only deals with cancers.
Has anyone actually done chemo on a pet? I'm very conflicted here. One the one hand she's 10 years old which is getting old for a cat and chemo is expensive and she doesn't have any active signs of it and while she tolerates the carrier for trips to the vet she isn't happy about them. Plus she isn't acting sick. The tumor was found when I took her in for a cold. On the other hand when we adopted her we agreed to take care of her no matter what. Plus M is very attached to her.
We'll pay for the second opinion but does anyone have real experience with this? I'd like to hear from someone that gains nothing if we do or do not do it.
Re: Anyone do chemo for a pet?
i'm probably not the right person to ask about this becausei have serious issues with putting animals through agressive medical treatments.
the chemo that was recommended for my sister's dog would have made her very sick so i guess it's a different treatment? or it's a case by case basis? all i know is there's no way to explain to an animal that you're making them very sick to make them well later on.
good luck, though. i don't envy you
they were talking about this on 101.5 yesterday evening. Honestly, it's hard and every situation is different. Our dog was 14 when she was sick and my family decided against it. We couldn't tell our dog what was going on and we didn't feel it was fair just to have another year with her...she'd be the one suffereing. Plus it was not 100% guaranteed to even make much of a difference.
Whatever you decide...make sure you find out how much this will cost you in the long run. You would hate to do, never help...and wind up in a financial burden.
*Hugs*...Good Luck with your decision.
Exactly that's why the vet said they don't do it aggressively. She used that exact phrase "if a treatment makes them ill we change it because there's no way to explain to an animal that you're making them sick to make them better".
Honestly, I wouldn't even consider it if the vet hadn't said that. And if we do go for it and it makes her sick, I'll pull back or off of it.
You used our vet, right? Princeton Animal Hospital? They told us to go to Northstar for an opinion since they don't do chemo at PAH. I'm wondering if the vet is just not honest with us about the treatment
Yes, I gave my dog, Max, chemo. He was almost 12, but still had all the energy in the world. The chemo honestly did not affect him - he didn't get sick, he didn't lose energy, and the people who administered it to him were great - he LOVED them. It gave us like 4 more months with him than we would have had, and regardless of the cost, I would do it again....
Unfortunately, he had bone cancer, and it eventually spread to his brain, which the chemo couldn't even help - it kept it out of his chest though, which is why he was always comfortable and happy. Once it hit his brain, he began having serious seizures daily (sometimes hourly), went blind, and just WASN'T himself - we put him down because it wasnt' fair.
We did chemo for my first dog. He was so active after his tumor removal that we thought that would be the best avenue to take. We were told that there was 50% chance that it would work, our other option was to do radiation but decided against that since it would be very expensive and the odds for recovery were the same.
We were told to give antacids to help settle his stomach. We had to go twice a week for treatment. It does take a toll but the drs and staff were so nice that it made the trip bearable.
It is a personal choice some people wold think it's crazy to spend all that time and money to help a pet but if you feel that chemo is the way to go, do it. We went in with the mind set that it things did not get better and his way of life was compromised that we would put him down.
We went to Red Bank vet hospital.
GL.
We go to a new vet, West Trenton Animal Hospital. We felt Princeton was a rip off, always encouraging additional treatments etc.
We use this animal hospital for emergencies and for extensive care when we had rescues and they were fantastic.
http://www.vetcares.com/
I'm sorry to hear about Seamus
Our dog was diagnosed with lymphoma right around this time last year. She was barely stage 2a so we decided to go with chemotherapy (she went into remission almost immediately) and also changed her diet and began holistic supplements and treatments. She had just turned 7. About 4 months later the cancer was back (we were told she had an aggressive case as all the odds were on her side for a year+ of remission) so we tried a different protocol. Throughout all this, she did not get sick and was running around and playing, just like normal. She died of a heart attack about 8 months after we found the lump in her neck. We had a great summer with her, took her to the beach, ran around the backyard, and just cherished every moment with her. I would make the same decision again, knowing now that her little body was fighting such a battle, as her quality of life never wavered.
It was an intense schedule of appointments and chemo was expensive as we had to go weekly for the chemo and also did other weekly holistic visits. To us, the possibility of a recovery was too high not to try. And at 7 she was so young. I think about her constantly, but never once have I had regret for "putting her through" the treatments that we did. On the contrary, she wouldn't have felt as good as she did for as long as she did without it. {{{hugs}}}