Found out the cat I rescued is 11 years old and has cancer 💔
For over 7 years there’s been a longhaired calico cat roaming around our street. I guess she once belonged to someone many years ago and was put outside after another person entered the home with three other animals, a dog and two other cats. They didn’t do separation with slow introductions, they didn’t provide her with a safe space and she began to get aggressive. That’s when she was out outside. Then they left and she was left behind to survive outside on her own.
My significant other purchased the house years before I came along and had spoken to many people about her and that’s how I learned her story. I’ve been living here now for 5 years and had been trying to trap her for over a year and a half. Finally on May 25th, I trapped her! I reached out to so many veterinary places to get an estimate of what it would cost to get her in for an extensive exam including bloodwork, vaccinations, severe mat removal, and many other things. The estimates were astronomical, one place even quoting my estimate at $3,125!! Thankfully I found a place that was willing to do all of the work required for a fraction of that estimate. I set the appointment for September and began observing everything I could and logging everything. By the time her appointment came, I had already sent them a pdf file containing weight trends, vomiting episodes, breathing abnormalities, unusual urine behavior, food and water logs, appetite enthusiasm, litter box usage, and much more.
Then we got to the vet and they were very concerned with how her breathing looked and asked if it would be ok to do X-rays to see what was going on inside her. I authorized the X-rays wanting them to have whatever they needed to treat her properly. That’s when we got the news we were hoping we would never hear, she has a large mass in her chest and they can’t tell if it’s attached to her trachea, lung or heart. She said it could possibly be all three but they would send them over to a radiologist and oncologist for consultation. Both confirmed what we already knew but we were hoping was wrong. The mass was large, attached to multiple organs and very likely cancer.
Her condition meant she wasn’t safe to sedate or put under anesthesia, it meant she wouldn’t have another 10 possibly years of love, warmth, safety and care. All we can do is keep her as comfortable as possible for as long as we can until her QoL declines to a point where we have to say goodbye, even though it breaks my heart to think about it.
We’re doing everything we can for her. We have low cat houses, beds, heating pads, soft blankets and soft foods (she also has dental disease in her back teeth that would normally be extracted under sedation), water fountains and all the love and treats she wants. But even still, I feel so guilty. If I had decided to try and trap her the first year I moved in, would I have had more success? Would she be healthier? Could earlier action on my part have been the difference between the few months, maybe a year max we get with her vs years or even a decade? Is what I’m doing now enough?
We’re doing palliative care with steroids and pain medication instead of going down the aggressive path of chemotherapy and/or radiation treatment. Since she’s extremely high risk of complications under anesthesia due to her health, the ongoing back and forth to appointments for treatment and rechecks would be extremely stressful on her and her body.
How do you cope with these questions in your head? How do you know when what you’re doing is right? How do you know when it’s time to stop fighting and managing symptoms and let them go? I feel like I’ve failed her. We named her Calypso. She’s sweet with people but a sassy, feisty demon towards other cats.