One avenue is to have surgery and see...the other is to treat her with steroids, which they say would also be treatment if she has an intestinal inflammation. Right now I am feeding her a/d and max. calorie food by syringe and giving her fluids.

I am reluctant to put her through a surgery if it is more likely to benefit me (ie. knowing what the disease is...I am a scientist and always want information) than it would benefit her...if we already suspect cancer and the surgery just confirms it...what I do after the surgery might be a choice I can make now anyway. But then depending on what they find, they might be able to remove tumors and the surgery would be beneficial.

I guess what I want to know is - has anyone had a similar situation and went ahead with the surgery? did the results help in the treatment of your kitty?

I love her dearly and this has been quite sudden for me to be thinking of losing her...but I don't want to hang on to her in a selfish way and cause her a lot of discomfort.

-My sister had a similar situation. Her cat had inflammatory bowel disease for years and was on Prednison. After many years, the Prednisone was no longer working. She had increased vomiting and diarrhea. She had a sonogram (I think it was) which showed enlarged lymph glands. This was not a definitve diagnosis of lymphoma, however. My sister did not want to put her through the surgery and chose instead to increase the Prednisone (I think she went up to 12.5 mg per day). The cat did well for many months
(maybe 9) and succumbed to lymphoma this spring. She was 16.

-My now thirteen-year-old cat, Alex, has intestinal lymphoma
(lymphosarcoma), which was diagnosed after exploratory surgery and biopsy in late November of last year. We had gone the ultrasound route, as well, and the ultrasounds were inconclusive. The only way to obtain a definitive diagnosis was the exploratory surgery (his intestinal thickening was too far up for a scope biopsy), so we went ahead with it. Frankly, the surgery was barely noticeable to him, as he was so sick. He had so much loose skin on his belly by then that the veterinarian just glued him "shut", and Alex showed no signs of even having noticed what had been done to him. After the biopsy and confirmation of lymphoma, Alex started chemotherapy in early December.

-Here's what I can tell you based solely on my research and experiences with Alex. Lymphoma is one of the most treatable forms of cancer in felines- Alex was given a 70-80% chance of remission by his oncologist, and he achieved it. Lymphoma tends to respond *very* quickly to chemotherapy- in rare circumstances, *too* quickly, where the tumors break up so suddenly that they poison the cat's sytem, so be aware of that.

With chemotherapy after diagnosis of lymphoma, cats generally survive an average of about 6-10 months, although that number is very subjective and dependent on the protocols used. Without chemo and with just steroids (typically prednisone), cats with lymphoma average about 2-3 months (again, a very rough timeframe).

The biggest caution in starting steroid treatment without deciding whether or not to do chemo is that the chemo may be less effective if the steroids are started without conjunctive chemotherapy. Ideally, both chemo and steroid treatment should begin at the same time if you decide to go ahead with chemo.

The most effective chemotherapy protocols for treatment of lymphoma in cats seem to be multi-drug protocols. Alex is treated with four drugs, three of which are chemotherapeutic agents. His treatment ran in four-week cycles for the first eight months. The first week, he got injections of L-Asparaginase and Vincristine at his oncologist's office, with daily prednisone pilling. The second through fourth weeks, he got Vincristine injections once a week at my regular vets' office, with Cytoxan tablets the day of the injection and the day following the injection, plus daily prednisone. In July, Alex was diagnosed as being in remission and his schedule was cut back to a bi-weekly schedule. (I am concerned at the moment that he may be coming out of remission due to what I'm seeing in the litterbox, and next week when he goes to his oncologist, I'll ask them what they think. My regular vets say that his lymph nodes feel good, but they can't get a good feel of his intestines because he tenses up when they try to palpate them and he is a strong boy, despite having lost tremendous amounts of weight during his saga [he went from eighteen pounds to less than eight pounds at his worst, although he is now back up to about 11-12 pounds].)