My cat has cancer, hepatic lipidosis, and leucemia: she still looks lively but won't eat

Hello, I'm gonna talk you about Olivia.

She is about 2.5 years old, though we can't really tell because she's rescued. She is my first cat. She's been with us for the past year, and it has been wonderful taking care of her: she's the kindest and loveliest cat I've met: the first time I grabbed her, she immediately began rubbing against my face.

Everything was well with her until about six months ago. First it was a mild lyringitis, which was well treated. It came back, and was treated again: we asked that vet if it could be related to some underlying serious condition: no, she said: it must be the weather. Well, three months ago she ocasionally stopped using her sandbox to pee. She started losing weight really fast, though she ate normally. She looked really depressed one day, and the next she was all jumpy and lively. I took her to the vet: gave me some vitamins. She went on the same: up one day, down the next. I didn't trust the two vets I had already taken her with (they seemed to only want the money), and the ones with a reputation were financially out of reach. But, about one month and a half ago it exploded: she stopped eating and moving, she started breathing violently. Luckily, about that same time I came to find about the existence of a wonderful vet (she works with multiple cat rescuers). In a matter of days she gave us the full diagnosis. First she discarded coronavirus, but the blood tests revealed a kidney failure (hepatic lipidosis) and the physical had already shown a strange bulge around her chest. We did the ultrasound, which showed a kind of tumor between her lungs, and then the x-ray confirmed it. Two weeks ago, we found out it was malignant. One week ago, we found out she has leucemia: the cause underlying all of Olivia's troubles.

She began the treatment for her liver, and seemed to get better immediately afer the vet did a thoracentesis on her. She saw her yesterday, and said she looked surprisingly well: much better that two weeks ago. She's even gained some of her weight back.

But here lies the trouble: she hasn't eaten since we came back from the vet (yesterday afternoon). Not that she doesn't want to eat: everytime the fridge opens or something rattles, she comes to see if there's something for her. It seems more like she can't eat: I've tried her usual food (Royal Canin for Adult cats) and wet/canned food (also Royal Canin, and even Whiskas and Friskies); I've tried fresh meat: tuna, chicken, beef. She smells, but rarely takes a bite: just smells. And then she leaves. She drinks a lot of water, though.

Any suggestions? I know what my vet's opinion will be when I call her tomorrow morning: it's no use to prolonge her suffering (and considering her liver disease, no eating means certain pain). And I think I agree.

The past weeks have been the most difficult: to come to know that Olivia has no chance against the cancer (it's phase two of three, and the liver disease discards the possibility of either surgery or chimio) has been devastating, to me and my partner. There's not much to do, but make her comfortable as long as she wants to stay with us. We know that sooner or later the best will be to euthanize her, but she seems to be willing to stay a little longer. She still looks rather lively and animated.

Any help appreciated.

I know when my pregnant foster cat who was very sick wouldn't eat last last month, a friend recommended I boil some chicken livers and then chop them up and mix it with scrambled eggs (no butter, salt etc) and some chicken broth (no salt). This worked wonders for her! She gobbled it up in mass quantities.

Another one I use when cats won't eat is baby food chicken. The Beechnut brand is best as it has no corn starch added, but the gerber brand is stinkier and they seem to like it more. These are the little jars they sell for human babies, check the ingredients and make sure it does not have onion or garlic powder added!

We had a cat, Ben, with cancer. His was bone cancer in his jaw. From diagnosis to when we put him to sleep was only 4 weeks. It got really bad, fast. He had issues eating and we really had to coax him along. We had him on injections of pain medication twice a day for the last few weeks, and after his medication kicked in his appetite would spike. He was incredibly picky during his last few weeks. He would only eat 3 different *very stinky* varieties: Sheba pate shrimp & cod, Fancy feast pate shrimp & cod, and Fancy Feast shredded whitefish & cheddar. Not the healthiest of foods, but that is all he would eat... and we tried EVERYTHING... like 30 different kinds/favors of canned food.

Vets can also give an appetite stimulant, although I have not used it, others who work with the rescue I work with have had good luck with it in certain situations!

Good luck!

Is your on any meds? The meds or the illness itself could be making her nauseous, which is treatable. There are a few medicines for that. Here is a link to a page that will give you information on the subject: http://www.felinecrf.org/nausea_vomiting_stomach_acid.htm

I'd also suggest asking your vet about nausea.

It's good that she's drinking. Has she been vomiting?

Good advice above me.  Please let us know what the vet says today.

Thanks to Oleander and StephenQ for the advice.

I already tried giving her (several times since yesterday night) the liver recipe, the Gerber and the Fancy Feast: she smells them (she's tasted the Fancy Feast, but not much) and then leaves again.

She had a one hour violent vomiting episode (she first expelled all the food she had on her, then white foam) on Saturday afternoon. The vet had already prescribed Ranitidine for such cases, and that helped her. She then had some tuna on saturday night, then stopped eating. She hasn't thrown up again.

My vet is currently unreachable (that happens frequently: cellphone service isn't that great around here--Mexico City, that is--and her office is a camper, so she moves a lot).

I don't have any advise, but I wanted you to know I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers, I'm so sorry you and your little one have to go through this. Bless you for helping her(and loving her).

Well, I talked to my vet.

This is the second time Olivia has stopped eating in the last couple weeks (last week she went 4 days without eating at all, then started eating again, which stopped us from euthanizing her on thursday), and in the last four weeks she's had only four or five good days. That's perhaps the reason that our hope got inflated, and we (including the vet) expected her to hang on a little more: during those days, she seemed to want the same. But she's been mostly down, and these last two days she's come back to her looking-at-the-wall stance, which suggests pain, and she's more and more unattentive.

So we have decided to let her rest for good.

It's impossible to be comfortable which such a decision: there's always remorse and an abstract feeling that something else could be done. But this really seems to be the best time to do it, before the cancer or her liver disease eats her up.

I'd appreciate your thoughts or recommendations.

yefimych said:

 
Well, I talked to my vet.

This is the second time Olivia has stopped eating in the last couple weeks (last week she went 4 days without eating at all, then started eating again, which stopped us from euthanizing her on thursday), and in the last four weeks she's had only four or five good days. That's perhaps the reason that our hope got inflated, and we (including the vet) expected her to hang on a little more: during those days, she seemed to want the same. But she's been mostly down, and these last two days she's come back to her looking-at-the-wall stance, which suggests pain, and she's more and more unattentive.

So we have decided to let her rest for good.

It's impossible to be comfortable which such a decision: there's always remorse and an abstract feeling that something else could be done. But this really seems to be the best time to do it, before the cancer or her liver disease eats her up.

I'd appreciate your thoughts or recommendations.

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I am so sorry you are going through this. I know how hard it is. When Ben got diagnosed, we though we would have 3-6 months. We looked into obscure treatments, surgically replacing his jaw with a metal one, etc. In the end, his cancer was far to aggressive and we could not do anything.

His last weekend with us, we stayed home and spent the weekend with him. He stopped eating on Saturday afternoon. We let our vet know we would be bringing him in Monday morning, and when I woke up Monday I did not want to make the call that we were on the way... He was sitting in bed with us and I set my phone down after hesitating dialing the number. Ben growled at me and pawed at my hand... I will always believe that he was telling me to make the darn call and let him go. He had not growled like that for no reason, ever. And had made almost no noises at all while sick.

I think our pets let us know when it is time, usually. Just spend some time with your sweet girl and see if she gives you any signs, like Ben did for us. I think it is the hardest part of responsible pet ownership to make that choice for our pets, but you know that she can't sustain life without eating, and letting her linger isn't fair to her. We considered other methods with Ben; a feeding tube was one of them. But in the end, I knew he had only days left and by refusing to eat, I do believe that was him just being done with it.

I will keep you and your little girl in my thoughts

I wish I had a solution to your little girl's medical issues, but I don't.  I have had a number of rescue cats and whatever happens, just remember you stepped up to give her some wonderful time and a lot of love that she would may not have had otherwise.  My heart goes out to you and I know that when and if the time comes, you will make the right choice.  I really have to agree with Oleander about our four legged family members knowing when their time has come to go home.  I have been through this twice and it is not easy.  Your little one knows you love her and that is what will help you make whatever decision you have to make.  Please know you and Olivia are in my thoughts and I am praying something turns around for her and she starts coming around.

@yefimych

It sounds like you have come to a decision, deeply heartfelt and that you are ready to release her.  There is no perfect time to do this.  If there was, the cat would communicate with us by ESP and say "I feel great right now, but in 12 hours I'm going to be miserable and it won't ever get better after that, so let me go now in my last moments of feeling healthy."

And since we don't have ESP, the best we can do is make an informed, compassionate decision in our cat's best interest and when treatment options have basically come to the end, take that final step.  Our animals don't think about the future, only about today. And so when the future is bleak and today isn't good, our reason for prolonging life and their reason for living it is collectively no longer there.

If there is going to be any delay I would consider giving her extra pain meds with your vets advice (like a nice sub Q dose of Bupeprenorphine) and maybe some anti nausea drugs, and if that helps her then let her have a few hours of feeling better and then let her go before that wears off.

I know you would like your last hours with her to be free of any distress, but at this point that may not be possible in which case the time has truly come.

The ASPCA Grief hotline is experienced in talking with people pre and post-euthansia.

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/pet-loss

ASPCA Pet Loss Hotline at (877) GRIEF-10. (877-474-3310)

Wishing you strength and sending vibes in this most difficult of times.

Stephen