Complete Care for Your Aging Cat - Amy Shojai [86]
Various mushrooms and even green tea have anticancer properties that holistic veterinarians often recommend. Green tea may inhibit tumor growth, angiogenesis (mutation from normal to cancer) and the spread of tumors. Although cats may not willingly drink a cup of tea, Dr. Wynn suggests adding a bit of the dried herb in the tea bag to the cat’s regular food. Reishi, Shiitake, and Maitake mushrooms are also known to stimulate the immune system and have anti-tumor activity, says Dr. Wynn. Most are available only as dried products or extracts from holistic veterinary sources.
Cats are extraordinarily difficult to medicate, so even when herbs, supplements and drugs are “good for them,” the stress of poking multiple items down the throat may counter any benefits. This can become a quality of life issue, when your cat begins to fear and avoid you at the very time in her life she needs you most. Dr. Wynn suggests creating a first, second, and third tier of treatment options, so your cat benefits from the most important or helpful ones first. “My first tier is a natural diet, with antioxidants and fish oil,” she says. After that, if your cat will accept more, a second tier might consist of IP6 and mushrooms.
Prognosis
Prognosis depends on the individual cat, kind of cancer, and the type of treatment. “There are so many of them do well,” says Dr. Garrett. Cures are possible. “When you treat cancer, you see miracles all the time. You see responses you’d never in a million years predict were possible,” says Dr. Kitchell.
But a cancer relapse means the chance for a cure is gone and your cat is losing the war. Tougher treatments are certainly possible, to buy more time, maintain comfort and try to get the disease back under control. Throughout the treatment, though, Dr. Kitchell emphasizes that you are free to say enough is enough—at any time.
Treatment not only offers help, comfort and hope to you and your cat, it also gives you, your family, and the veterinarian, the necessary time to adjust to the eventual outcome, says Dr. Kitchell. “You go through the ups and downs of everything that happens, together, so you’re walking the road with them,” she says. “Cancer clients are the best, just the best people! Clients that seek cancer care are very openhearted, they have that kind of special relationship with an animal and not everybody can. So that makes them very special, very wonderful people.”
As with any chronic illness, quality of life comes first. Nothing lasts forever, and an old cat with cancer has only a limited time left to spend with you. “You want to make every day that animal has a good day, a golden day,” says Dr. Kitchell.
Age-Defying Tips
There is no foolproof way to prevent cancer, but you can take certain steps to reduce risk factors for your cat.
Spaying and neutering cats at an early age decreases the risk of mammary cancer in females, and prostate cancer in males.
Cats with white faces and ears are at risk for sun-induced cancer. Protect them from sunburn with sunscreen, or prevent outside exposure during the brightest time of the day.
Secondhand smoke and chlorine in drinking water increases the risk of bladder cancer. Protect your cat from exposure to these carcinogens.
Obesity increases the risk of cancer. Keep cats thin.
Golden Moments: Casey’s Miracle
Casey, a mostly black cat with white “tuxedo” markings reminded Bonnie Cheak of one of her first cats. “He’s a crazy cat,” she says. “He goes to extremes.” Casey alternates between being very sweet and rubbing against you for attention, then getting cranky. “He’s also very determined,” she says. That determination may have helped save his life.
Casey was very healthy until Christmas a few years ago when he was nine. “He’d been eating a lot, then suddenly seemed like he’d lost