Will medical advances save this cat's life?
Play
Phantom shows improvement in his energy levels but without the steroids, his interest in food is diminished
THE HEALTH problems of my elderly cat Phantom are ongoing. Just when we think we’re out of the woods, we end up in a jungle.
As I wrote last week, the boy’s latest lab report found that the Eosinophilic granuloma, a growth in his mouth, had disappeared without a trace. What we thought were granulomas on his eye and nose were inflammations, easily treated with antibiotics and medicine to reduce inflammation.
On the minus side, dead tissue was also found in his gum, and that must be removed by surgery.
Worse, squamous carcinoma was also found. The granuloma must have been hiding it.
This is a cancer I know well. Years ago, I found lumps on the stomach of one of my cats. Barbie’s lab report was even more specific. She didn’t have very long to live.
Barbie was part of a litter of kittens living under a car when the driver of a friend of mine brought her to me. My vet warned me that it would take her a few days to learn to live with a human. Actually, it took her an hour or two. From then on, no matter what other animal joined the household, she considered herself my owner.
She lived with me for only 11 years, and then I found the lumps one day in January. One morning only six or seven months later, she called to me. I picked her up, and she died in my arms.
Imagine an animal trusting you so much that she’d spend her last breath with you.
Right now, Phantom doesn’t know he’s still sick. The antibiotics and anti-inflammatories have cleared up his eye, and his nose is looking much better than it has in months.
He runs up and down the stairs, eager to patrol the house. The dog ignores him, and he gets along with the other cats, except for Wild Child Manohra. Her threats are half-hearted, though.
Even this kid knows that it’s much too hot to start a fight, and Phantom doesn’t seem that interested in attacking her.
He continues to lose weight, though. The steroids he was taking for the granuloma increased his appetite, and I didn’t have to worry about how much he was eating – he would eat everything I put before him.
Now, though, without the steroids, he’s become less interested in food, and food that he once enjoyed no longer excites him. Times have changed, though. I search the petfood shops and markets for food that might attract his taste buds.
Sometimes it’s hard to realise how much more is available on the pet market in Thailand now than when Barbie was alive. From Japan, Europe, Britain and the States come all sorts of foods for cats and dogs, as well as innovative treats, health enhancers and medicines that may have helped extend Barbie’s life or at least improved the quality.
Chemo and other treatments are now common for dogs and cats suffering from cancer. We’re not limited to anaesthesia for surgery; there is gas therapy as well.
The vet expert wishes to continue Phantom’s treatment for another two months before we decide on the next steps. I’m not sure just how much an 18-year-old cat can endure. In human terms, he is around 90, after all.
I do have a secret hope, though. Phantom’s previous owner was quite specific about his date of birth – November 1998. She was so wrong about so much other information she gave us about Phantom, could she have made a mistake about his age?
A friend of mine insists that he doesn’t look 18 years old. Could he be, say, a middle-aged boy, a cat who has much more than a year or so to live?
