I had started another thread about my cat's condition to get advice, but now I'm looking for advice on this awful, awful situation..
to sum it up, my cat has a large mass on her intestines. It's not 100% that it's cancer, but the vet said if a biopsy was going to be taken, then the entire mass may as well be taken out. She's 11 year old, and while not THAT old, she is very frail (4.8lbs) and low in some key nutrients. The vet has never given me a straight answer about whether or not surgery would be a good option, but I'm getting the vibe that it wouldn't be. I'm just not sure she'd make it.
She's gotten a steroid shot that helped with her apetite, and a little bit with the urinating around the house (the vet believes the mass is pressing on her bladder)..I even got a shot for a UTI to see if that was an underlying issue, but it doesn't really seem to be the case.
However, now she's occasionally throwing up her food - yesterday she did it about 2 hours after she ate, and while she seemed to have eaten fast, I would think she'd throw up a lot sooner if that was the reason for it. This morning, I found urine in MANY locations..she sticks to one room (by choice, she's not enclosed in any area)..but I must've found about 10-12 different spots of urine.
It broke my heart and it makes me think the mass is really too much - but then she hops off the chair and wants attention from me..she follows me around and rubs on me and gives me those eyes - and seems so NORMAL in some ways.
I'm just torn on what to do. I don't want to keep bringing her back and forth to the vet. But since she's still so affectionate and loving, it makes me feel like it's not the end and there's still something more I can do, but I don't know what. I don't want it to get the point of her intestines being completely blocked and she's suffering - like the vet said will inevitably happen - but I don't want to put her down prematurely.
I know people say you will just "know" when the time is right, but I feel like my cat is just ridiculously resilient, and despite everything she's going through, is putting on a good face.
I have cried so much over this. And as much as I want to bring her to different vets to get different opinions, I don't want to keep dragging her around like that..or spending so much money to hit dead-ends.
Any advice would be so appreciative. I feel like I have no one to help me through this. She's not really a family pet - just MY pet - and while the family would care, no one will be as effected as myself.
to sum it up, my cat has a large mass on her intestines. It's not 100% that it's cancer, but the vet said if a biopsy was going to be taken, then the entire mass may as well be taken out. She's 11 year old, and while not THAT old, she is very frail (4.8lbs) and low in some key nutrients. The vet has never given me a straight answer about whether or not surgery would be a good option, but I'm getting the vibe that it wouldn't be. I'm just not sure she'd make it.
She's gotten a steroid shot that helped with her apetite, and a little bit with the urinating around the house (the vet believes the mass is pressing on her bladder)..I even got a shot for a UTI to see if that was an underlying issue, but it doesn't really seem to be the case.
However, now she's occasionally throwing up her food - yesterday she did it about 2 hours after she ate, and while she seemed to have eaten fast, I would think she'd throw up a lot sooner if that was the reason for it. This morning, I found urine in MANY locations..she sticks to one room (by choice, she's not enclosed in any area)..but I must've found about 10-12 different spots of urine.
It broke my heart and it makes me think the mass is really too much - but then she hops off the chair and wants attention from me..she follows me around and rubs on me and gives me those eyes - and seems so NORMAL in some ways.
I'm just torn on what to do. I don't want to keep bringing her back and forth to the vet. But since she's still so affectionate and loving, it makes me feel like it's not the end and there's still something more I can do, but I don't know what. I don't want it to get the point of her intestines being completely blocked and she's suffering - like the vet said will inevitably happen - but I don't want to put her down prematurely.
I know people say you will just "know" when the time is right, but I feel like my cat is just ridiculously resilient, and despite everything she's going through, is putting on a good face.
I have cried so much over this. And as much as I want to bring her to different vets to get different opinions, I don't want to keep dragging her around like that..or spending so much money to hit dead-ends.
Any advice would be so appreciative. I feel like I have no one to help me through this. She's not really a family pet - just MY pet - and while the family would care, no one will be as effected as myself.