It?s hard to say good bye
Anyone who has gone through the traumatic ordeal of putting a pet down knows the feeling. I had to euthanize my 8 year old female cat yesterday. The last time I had to do that to a pet was back in 1997, so I had forgotten the intense sorrow. She was a tiny cat - only 7 pounds - but she was a major presence in our house. I became her buddy early on, and she always came to me for attention.
Unfortunately, she developed a cancerous tumor in one of her breasts that was discovered in May, 2020 that was smaller than an average pea. It was surgically removed. The prognosis for a complete recovery was poor since the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes. I did not find it soon enough. She had almost two years of relatively good health but two large and very aggressive cancerous tumors were found yesterday. One had compressed her colon and the other compressed her esophagus. She could neither eat or move her bowels. The symptoms occurred within a week. Her last three month checkup was in late January and no tumors were found. The next exam was scheduled for late April.
We made a fatal error when she adopted us as a 4-5 month old stray on Memorial Day, 2014. We should have had her spayed immediately prior to her first reproductive (heat) cycle. This lowers the odds of females developing breast cancer to almost zero. We had her spayed after the first reproductive cycle because we were totally unaware that one of the main causes of breast cancer in female cats is the rush of hormones from her first heat.
Female cats should be regularly examined by their owners for breast tumors. There is a very short period of time, maybe as short as a few weeks, to find and remove the tumor before the cancer spreads into the lymph nodes. The tumor has probably existed for several weeks in her breast by the time it grows large enough to be felt.
It was a great 8 years. I only wish we had 8 more.
Sorry guys, this belongs in Gun Talk.
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