-I had a 12 year old male cat with stomach and intestional cancer. He received 6 months of chemotherapy with cytoxin and vincristine. The treatments for cats are very different from those with humans. We went every three weeks and after a blood test he received an injection and set of pills. I could stay with him the whole time. I don't think the chemo added any additional stress to the stress of having the disease itself. They don't lose their hair or have excessive vomiting. It is expensive and time consuming, but I was glad to be able to give him and me another year of life together. I'm sure the reaction varies according to the drugs. My vet and the specialist we saw, were both very open about what to expect from the process and explaining the pros and cons. My regular vet was most helpful in the evaluation of our particular situation.

-My cat Feedback was treated with Carboplatin and another chemo drug when he was 11 years old; this was follow-up treatment after a cancerous kidney was removed. It's not really clear whether the chemo actually helped him or not -- he had a recurrence and died about 15 months after he was first diagnosed. His cancer was very rare, so I don't know how long he would have lived (or what his quality of life would have been) without the chemo.

The chemo caused only a few very mild side effects (a little loss of appetite and maybe a little vomiting). Of course, he didn't enjoy all the trips to the vet to get chemo. Feedback stayed very comfortable most of the time that he had cancer.