Feline update: Ripley
The vet just called. My cat Ripley’s blood-test results look good; all her numbers are normal. The doc wants to keep Ripley on her meds, since they seem to have stabilized her.
As for the lump under her jaw, he says it might be a benign bone mass, or it might be cancer — but that there’s not much we can do. Because the cat is already on Prednisone, radiation and chemotherapy are out. And because of her advanced age (18 years) and low body weight (7.6 pounds), surgery would be extremely high risk and have a low probability of success. And even if the mass could be excised, the post-op recovery phase would not be pretty; Ripley’s quality of life would be significantly worse than it is now.
All we can do now is keep her stable and comfortable, and monitor her behavior. As long as she continues to eat well, drink fluids, and pass them (despite doing so outside the litter box, much to my chagrin), we’ll continue her diet and medicines.
On the face of it, this seems like good news, but I can’t shake the feeling that my beloved old cat might not make it to her 19th birthday. All we can do is hope for the best.
Next: our younger cat, Mister Puck, goes to the vet for his checkup and vaccinations on Thursday. Wish me luck — he’s impossible to catch…