From:
Christine Bertch
Date: 2002-05-24 21:39:00 UTC
Subject: Malignant cancer-not lymphoma-advice needed
Hello everyone,
I'm looking for some advice with my little 6 year old girl Bandit.
Tuesday she was not able to walk, but she was alert and wanting to eat and
drink so it didn't look like insulinoma. Then I noticed that she had
swelling in her front and rear paws. We took her to the vet and had several
things done. X-rays (showed nothing remarkable), heart sounded good,
bloodwork came back relatively normal just a little low PCV and blood sugar.
The vet also did a fine needle aspirate of the spleen (she has had an
enlarged spleen for several months now) and even a spinal tap. The only
thing that was found with the pathology report were glandular epithelial
cells which apparently indicate some kind of cancer, but it is not lymphoma.
Due to the nature of aspiration, we can't tell where the tumor cells
originated without doing exploratory surgery. Given her condition, I'm just
not inclined to do that right now. Chemotherapy is also something that is
not really an option in our area
She is now on Prednisone. The swelling in all her extremities has gone
down and she has just a little bit more energy, can move around more, and is
eating/drinking fairly well. Has anyone else had experience with anything
like this? With normal range blood values, any thoughts on what this could
be??? Pathologist was considering malignant insulinoma...
I'd like to do anything I can to improve her quality of life. She was
just fine on Monday--running and playing with everyone--I can't believe
things can happen so fast. Any advice would be appreciated.
Christine and Bandit