Whispers health part 5

Half a year. That’s how long it took for Whispers chemotherapy for gastrointestinal lymphoma. For 6 months our life ran in two weeks cycles due to chemo administration intervals. Whisper was suppose to receive 12 doses of Leukeran every 14 days. We’ve managed to organise it along with my specialisation studies every other weekend and my clinic schedule. Any trips, conferences, cat shows, breeding plans, guests, house renovations, had to be taken aside. To be honest, when it comes to that part of our life, I don’t really remember anything else than cleaning, worrying and control check ups with Whisper. 

After adapting to Whisper blindness (more about it HERE),  we’ve done control blood tests and ultrasound to have a control point to campare with later check up. While this was done, we’ve started her on chemo. Unfortunately it wasn’t just administering the pills. 

Every other friday, right after my morning shift at work, I came home to clean eveything up, along with detergents and desinfectiona agents to wash the floor. After that, on Saturday, Whisper would start the day with antiemetic pill to prevent her from vomiting the chemo pills that she was given in the afternoon. The drug is secreted from the body mostly with saliva for next 2-3 days. To keep our other cats from contact with the drug, we had to lock Whisper up in the cat room for next 4 days.

Wednesdays were another cleaning-up-the-house days. Also with desinfecting the floors, washing cat beds, pillows and blankets, cat trees etc. Although with cats undergoing chemotherapy, you don’t get such a great immunity drop as with people, we still tried to minimise any risk of Whisper getting sick. My work gets me in more contact with ill animals, than an ordinary pet owner. UV lamp that we got for the cattery, had two jobs now. One was to desinfect our shoes, coats, bags/purses etc. that were left in the mudroom in order to kill any microbe we might have carried home. The other thing was to increase neutralisation of chemo in the enviroment. After letting Whisper out from the cat room, it was locked with UV lamp on, for over a dozen hours. Thanks to UV radiaton, leftovers of the drugs could be disposed much faster and more precise. 

Leaving cat roo after the quarantine wasn’t such an easy deal. As I mentioned – chemo is secreted with ostly with saliva. Cats spend around 5 hours a day cleaning themselves. So before Whisper could have contact with other cats, we had to bath her. At first it was difficult to do but she got used to it with time. My work schedule and treatment cycles got along so bathing day was on y afternoon shifts. When I got back from work, I took a shower to clean up after patients, then Toek would bring Whisper to me and she had her bath. Every next time was a bit better as she was getting used to the routine. Eve hairdryer wasn’t that scary if it was a bit far, just laying aside. 

Afterwards we went to sleep – Whisper as well. She usually stays under the covers with us, which turned out to be a great habit, as we were sure she won’t get cold during the night. 

In the morning, we turned off the UV lamp in cat rooms, so it was good to be cleaned up before I had to go back to work in the afternoon. We also washed all the pillows and cat beds, from the room that was used by Whisper. Everything was also treated with steam cleaner. Sometimes all that activity spread for another day, as sometimes I didn’t have enough strength to do it all at once. 

Luckily, against our worries, Whisper was taking the treatment very well. We didn’t see any side effects and blood test were all in normal during further control checks. Whisper didn’t lick her belly as she used to. I cannot write, that all the other symptoms disapeared, as there was none other symptoms in the first place. All the above let me to believe that we can handle this and Whisper will be with us for long time to come. I hoped that all that stress, tiredness, tears and doubts will be forgotten in time, while she will still be there.

As we had breeding break in the cattery we decided to managed also other issues. We started pharmacological treatment for ovarian cyst that we found on Elmas ovary back in September during annual health check (more about it HERE). Because of her later pregnancy, we couldn’t take care of it back then. Luckily treatment did well and control ultrasound showed no signs of any ovarian cysts anymore. Afterwards, Elma and Helen were microchiped with melatonine – to stop their cycles – for the period of Whispers treatment. (Elma had to have this repeated as she got in heat in June and chemotherapy was about to end in the second part of July.). We didn’t want to risk pregnancy while there was chemotherapy used at home.   

Cody was also blocked or rather “temporarly castrated” with Suprelorin chip. In his case – we were aware that the chip has to be removed after few weeks. If we didn’t take it out, it could have block him from breeding for over two years and we didn’t need nor want such a long break with him. We also planned to have all the cats (excluding Whisper) to have their teeth cleaned. We arranged it in a way, to have Cody’s chip removed the same time under one sedation. Teeth cleanin effects you can compare HERE.

In June we were in the later half of the chemo. The weather was nice and warm so we decided to let the cats outside for a while, so they can use some sun. Whisper was doing great and was in a good condition, so we also let her to the garden. 

She was more than happy to get out for a while. She ran on the grass as she was never sick and not undergoing chemotherapy at the moment. What’s more, she didn’t have any problems with moving around the garden at all, we didn’t see symptoms of her blindness back then. We even started to wonder if at least her partial sight was kept. 

In July we’ve administered the last dose of chemo. Once we felt relieved, but on the other hand we were still worried if this was enough. Lab test were all normal during the whole treatment, but there were not much changes before we started it. Blood smear before chemotherapy showed lymphoblasts but in the middle of theraphy, there were none. At the end, they didn’t find any of them as well. 

Abdominal ultrasound was the final test to decide, as it was also the first one that had us suspect something might be wrong with Whisper. I got ultrasound from work and we egzamined her at home. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s hard to keep my distance to be objective when it comes to my own cats. I was afraid, I might miss something if I get nervous  and wanted  to get second opinion. 

At the beginning of August we had an ulstrasound workshops for our doctors at work. My good friend was our teacher, doctor Jarosław Kłyszejko – Kowiel from Assi-Vet. He is mostly only into medical imagining and he’s good enough to teach other vets in that matter. I was happy to be able to consult my diagnose with a specialist. Whisper was a diagnostic cat for a moment then. Her examination served as an example for abdominal ultrasound during our little classes. Right after it was done, she went back home with Tomek while I stayed for the rest of the training. 

After that examination I calmed down as it showed I didn’t miss anything in my ultrasound. Back in January, Whispers spleen was enlarged but now it got back to it’s regular size. One of her kidneys had a little place of old malformation which was probably caused by previous biopsy in January. But all renal parameters were normal in blood tests. Abdominal lymphonodes were no longer enlarged and there were no pathology in other organs.  

Only after this we felt really relieved. Lymphoma remission with this kind of treatment is up to 2 or 3 years (if we are lucky). If it comes back, there is other chemotherapy protocol that cane be used but it’s a bit more agressive. Second treatment can lead to another remission persion of up to 8 months. 

First half of the year was difficult for us mentally (doubts if treatment will be succesful and if there are side effects etc.) and physically. In August after we were done, I realised, that we are no longer slaves to constant cleaning regime, strict higine and desinfection protocols at home. When we could look back at the chemo as a past, I also realised that all this treatmen was not as bad, as I feared when it comes to Whisper. Back in January, when I first read the diagnose, I was scared how she will handle this, if there will be complications, side effects or she gets worse from the chemo. Luckily we were spared all the above. I believe we owe that to early diagnosis, when it wasn’t that advanced yet. Once again I’ve learnt how important are regular health checks in cats. We’ve won this battle and we can enjoy our little girl for a bit longer. Keep your fingers crossed that it lasts as long as possible because I cannot imagine our life without her.  

 

 

I would like to thank everyone who were with us through this – supported, helped, consulted and gave us streanght to go on.

Thanks to you we made it through the treatment and all that came along.