My Ragdoll has lymphoma. What tests determine if surgery is an option?

I'm sorry your cat may have lymphoma. The surgery and biopsies aren't very painful, she will be under anesthesia, and they will give her some pain medication afterwards. The danger of it depends on her health status, and her vet can give you the best estimate of this. Any surgery carries risk, but it can still be safe in a cat this age. Personally I'd do the surgery first. I hope this helps!

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Phoebe! Lymphoma is a diffuse cancer. It usually isn't a solitary mass but is throughout the entire organ. In Phoebe's case all her lung tissue. So Lymphoma is treated with chemotherapy not surgery usually. Since you are willing to treat, ask for a lung aspirate or biopsy. They can biopsy the lung, culture it for bacteria and do a fungal culture. Sometimes you have to be the health advocate for your pet! It's not an easy surgery and aspirates are risky. But if you want to know what is going on then you should try to get an answer. Also since you have been seeing a specialist maybe they can use a scope to get the samples. I hope this helps and I wish you and Phoebe the best!

These are great questions. Contrary to popular belief, most cancer patients in veterinary medicine have completely unremarkable bloodwork. Just because there are many extra lymphocytes in the walls of the intestines, does not mean there are extra lymphocytes in the blood stream - where our sample comes from. We can be suspicious of it from an ultrasound but cannot truly diagnose it without the biopsy. As for the second part, small cell lymphoma is a disease that affects large sections of or almost the entire small bowel. It is not a single mass that can be removed. Luckily for you, small cell lymphoma responds well to chemotherapy in most cases. Best wishes to you and Trixie.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Trixie. I am sorry to hear about her recent diagnosis. Unfortunately, gastrointestinal lymphoma can be a longterm consequence of inflammatory bowel disease in cats. I am glad that will consult with an oncologist. There are actually a variety of treatment protocols, some of which can be oral tablets given at home. Cats tend to tolerate chemotherapy really well. They do not usually lose hair like human cancer patients will. There can be some nausea, but this is generally mild and there are good medications to control it. The main side effects tend to be white blood cell suppression. For this reason, her blood work will be monitored carefully. I hope this information helps!

Hi there and thank you for your post. While ultrasound can be quite a values tool in diagnostics, it is unable to diagnose lymphoma on its own. Endoscopy is considered good standard because samples of tissue can be biopsied and then processed at a lab by a pathologist and interpreted at the cellular level, which ultrasound cannot do. I would suggest an ultrasound first if you haven't already and then if no at is not a concern, set up a second opinion with an internal medicine specialist to discuss the next diagnostic steps and treatment options. If lymphoma is confirmed, you may want to consider a consult with an oncologist at that point. Hope that helps and hope Sam feels better soon! Please feel free to contact me with any further questions or concerns you may have.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I am sorry to hear that. Lymphoma is an aggressive disease in cats, especially when in the gastrointestinal system and in circulation. Usually even with chemotherapy you are looking at a prognosis of 2-6 months depending on the exact type of lymphoma. You could try prednisolone as a palliative treatment to make her feel better for the time being and perhaps extend her survival time for a few weeks. If she is already anemic, she may also require a blood transfusion making things a bit more complicated. If she is not doing well and you are not interested in pursuing therapy knowing the prognosis then euthanasia is a good option. Let me know if you have further questions regarding her disease. Sorry for the sad news!

This is a very difficult situation for you to be in. When it comes to quality of life I advise owners to look at what things there cat enjoys doing and if they are still doing those things. Examples could be eating, playing, or interacting with you. If those factors are not what they should be then it is a matter of can this be fixed or not. For example if your cat is not eating due to nausea could we give him medication to make them feel better and eat. Or if they are weak due to anemia could we give a blood transfusion or stimulate the bone marrow to make more red cells to help them feel better. If though none of the interventions are acceptable to you then it might be time to assess the quality of life and end any suffering. Ultimately it is your decision about what constitutes Peter having a good quality of life and if those measures can be met or not realistically. As you know lymphoma ultimately is fatal. Some cats can do very well for a long period of time however with his dropping red cell level I am concerned about Peter's long-term prognosis.