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Shasta - Sweet Little Cat |
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Written by Dr. Nicky Joosting
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Wednesday, 22 February 2006 |
Shasta - Sweet Little Cat
Shasta came to Vancouver Feline Hospital in March 2004. She is now thirteen. When
she arrived, she and her owner had been battling the combined problems of
uncontrolled diabetes, severe periodontal disease (you could smell her bad
breath across the room!) and a bladder infection. To cap it all, she has early
chronic renal insufficiency.
The sheer cost of dealing with all this was overwhelming, but we elected to
give this sweet little cat every chance. The very first thing Dr. Nicky did was
take out all her rotten teeth - she has one fang left. The day after her dental
surgery, she started on insulin. We start cats on Caninsulin, at a low dose, and
let their bodies stabilise before adjusting the dose. Shasta's doses have been
adjusted by doing blood glucose curves. It is important to realise that
concurrent kidney insufficiency, bladder infections or any other middle-age
disease in cats will alter their drinking habits, so water intake is NOT a way
to monitor diabetic control.
At the same time, we cultured her urine and started her on a
long course of antibiotic specific to the bacterial infection in her bladder.
She finished this 42 day course and her follow-up urine cultures have
been negative. Her mouth is healed, her kidneys are coping, her bladder
infection is cleared and her diabetes is controlled. Shasta was spayed late in
life, at nine years old because of a uterine infection (pyometra). This may have
predisposed her to another major problem. On a routine weight check and cuddle,
Dr. Nicky felt a lump on one of her mammary glands. Breast tumours in cats are
nearly always malignant. The best chance is to get those lumps out when they are
still very small.
Shasta underwent a unilateral mastectomy - where the entire chain
of mammary glands and the associated lymph node is removed. Sadly, the cancer is
on both sides, so she went through another surgery about a month from the
first. The tumour was identified by biopsy (histopathology) as a mammary
adenocarcinoma. Her prognosis is poor, 3 years at the most. Chemotherapy has not
proven to extend lifespan, and we will focus on providing quality of life. So far Shasta has beaten the odds and continues to be our greeter kitty. The photos on this page were taken shortly after surgery, but today most people are shocked to discover how old she is - nearly everyone estimates her age at 5 years! We never tried to find a home for her, given her short prognosis, so when in the neighbourhood, stop by. Shasta loves visitors.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 28 March 2006 )
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