At the Beginning of the End

Lily is a 15 year old domestic short hair brown tabby cat. Yesterday, Monday, September 29, I took her to the vet for what I hoped was a tooth abscess. I had found the swelling around her right top canine tooth a week earlier. I had put her on Clindamycin, an antibiotic, in the intervening week. The vet, Dr. Alan, only does surgeries on Mondays.

On initial examination, Dr. Alan said it was an oral tumor, not an abscess.

Sure there was/is hope the tumor was benign, but (as I since googled) benign mouth tumors in cats are rare, and not particularly friendly.

Lily has been treated for chronic renal failure (kindey disease) for about 2 years. She's been treated for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (heart disease) for a little over a year. She's been in a slow decline because of the CRF, losing weight and now down to 6 lbs, 8 oz. I had warned Jim that because of her HCM, she might experience an emergent event that would take her life.

I wasn't ready for cancer.

Dr. Alan removed the soft tissue of the tumor and the broken canine tooth it was surrounding (broken tooth was rotted; it had been fine at her check up in May). The tumor has invaded the bone (upper jaw). The vet did not attempt to surgically excise the tumor from the bone.

The pathology will be back later this week. The best hope the vet could give me is that it might grade as a slow growing cancer.

Given Lily's age and other medical conditions, the vet already has advised me twice against "heroic" measures (bone surgery, chemo, radiation). I agree. Based on what both the vet and I expect the pathology to show, we will keep a watch on her comfort and quality of life as the cancer progresses.

She came home from the vet around 7pm. You have never seen a cat so happy to get home. Despite being groggy and stumbly from the anesthesia and pain meds, Lily had to inspect every inch of her domain. I carried her about so she could check it all out. I even took her to check out the lump on the couch (Jim).

Lily was very restless during the night. Also famished. She ate 2 cans of fancy feast and some dry food. She was up and down the bed all night, refusing to use the assistive stool I had placed at the end of the bed. But she is a determined soul.

She used the litter box both as a toilet and as a bed for awhile.

This morning, she refuses to be behind a closed door. She wants normal back. Because she seldom goes downstairs during the daytime, I figure she is relatively safe allowed to prowl the upstairs. She is still stumbly, and will be getting a pain pill (Tramadol) soon. She also will be on Clindamycin for a week. I am dreading looking in her mouth when I medicate her.

I started this blog to journal her passage. From what I read, oral cancers in cats can be very aggressive. We may not have more than a month or two of good health. At this point, I expect the cancer to continue to take over the bones in her jaw and sinus (will have to watch for sneezing), into her lymph system, and then her lungs. She will not be in pain, and I will watch carefully for discomfort.

She will pass at home, as Maxwell did, with the help of a visiting vet.