Mona’s leg was amputated June 13, 2014. She is still a happy sweet cat on three legs. She was especially happy this morning when I gave her dental kibbles in bed at 5 am. Great way to start the day!
During this past year I’ve learned about the resilience and determination of tripawds and their parents through this website and am thankful for that. Other things I have learned:
- Mona is smart, resilient, and adaptable. I assisted with placing boxes at locations where she likes to jump up and she uses them to go down instead of diving off the bed.
- Mona knows the boxes were meant for her. She doesn’t allow my other cat Eli to use them. He’s smart too and only sleeps on them when she’s not around.
- Vaccine Associated Fibrosarcomas in cats is not curable. Hopefully tumour removal through surgery stops it from spreading. Radiation, chemo, and Interleukin 2 only delay re-occurrence. If possible immediate amputation is the best hope to rid the body of VAS if the vaccines are injected low in the leg. My vet and pathologist are confident the cancer left with the leg. All I have is hope. I don’t dwell on it but am thankful for every day she is with me.
- Question the prognosis if statistics are used. The stats show that re-occurrence is 66 after tumour removal or 325 days after amputation. Mona had her leg amputated 365 days ago! She had no additional treatments.
- Do not change the type of kitty litter used during surgery recovery. Mona would not use the new stuff.
- Have the vet or technician open the medication bottle before I leave the clinic. When it was time to give Mona pain meds, in my panic I couldn’t open the lid.
- Make the decision, live with it and don’t look back.
- Take control of my pets’ healthcare. Annual vaccinations are unnecessary. Follow the Veterinary Association’s Guidelines even though some vets don’t.
- “Listen” to Mona, she tells me what she needs. When she runs into the house really fast, up the stairs and under the bed that means something scared her and Eli starts his thug walk to go outside and take care of it. When she runs real fast and lies down at the bottom of the stairs then she wants me to brush her.
- Love Mona exactly as she is.
Here’s Mona waiting for me to come home from work:
Mona enjoying a sunny day:
Heading to the house for supper. Note the tail is always up and gets very fluffy when food is involved.
Fluffy tail as she fast hops to the food bowl:
