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Mouse's SCC of the Tongue First of all I'd like to say thank-you very much for your website, it has been extremely helpful during the Mouse's fight with SCC. I have given an account of his illness below and will try to get a scanned photo of him if you'd like to add my account to your website. I hope you are doing well and I'm glad you have a new cat, Muffin in your life - she looks adorable.
Mouse was
diagnosed with oral SCC on 8 November 2005. He had been drooling for a
couple of days over the weekend and we took him to the vets where she
diagnosed a probable tumour on the underside of his tongue. The vet kept
him in and did a biopsy on the same day, which ultimately proved to be
positive.
So began the
hardest couple of months of my life. As with so many of the experiences
that I have read on your site, The Mouse was just a huge part of our lives.
He was a unique cat, highly intelligent and always did things his way - very
often just to be contrary I think. He was unusual in colouring (Grey and
White) and very striking looking, all white around his face and mane. I
still can't imagine life without him! He was 14 when he died.
For about a week
after his biopsy eating became a real ordeal for him - but because he was a
naturally greedy boy, he persevered. Once the biopsy healed, there was a
marked difference in his ability to eat much better, although this was
short-lived. As the tumour grew, it became harder and harder and we offered
a very wide range of food for him to try, including the prescribed Science
AD diet for its high calorific count and soft consistency. His medication
was a steroid called Dexadresson, which was designed to alleviate
inflammation and also gave him a huge appetite. This was good and bad. On
the good side, he never gave up eating right until the last day - but on the
bad side it was incredibly sad to try and watch him constantly battling to
get the food in his mouth, keep it there and swallow it. He developed a
superb shoveling technique to get the food in his mouth that I can only
describe as ingenious. By the second week in December the tumour had grown
so much that it had pushed his tongue out of the right side of his mouth
permanently. I tried to imitate eating in these circumstances from a plate
on the floor, with my tongue stuck out of the side of my mouth and no help
from my hands - I found it impossible. His perseverance was remarkable -
but knowing him and his character, not surprising.
As well as a
constant struggle to keep him eating food that he could manage and hopefully
enjoy to a certain extent, it was so sad to see the degeneration of his
appearance. Because he was still attempting to groom himself, he constantly
rubbed food and dirt all over his face and his paws (which were white). We
started bathing him a couple of times a week and washing his face with warm
water a couple of times a day. We also groomed him with a semi-hard
bristled brush. But none of these techniques came close to his own ability
to keep himself immaculately groomed as he did prior to his illness -
another heartbreaking fact about this cruel and aggressive illness.
Because we didn't want to cause any further
trauma to his mouth we arranged with our vet so that we could give him
injections twice daily of the Dexadresson and also when he was on
antibiotics (a lot of the time during his last few weeks) we also used
an injectable form. I can recommend this highly in place of oral,
tablet treatment - it is a bit scary at first, but it doesn't take long
to learn how to do it. Our vet gave us very clear and helpful
instructions and I practiced on oranges before injecting the Mouse. He
was superb and rarely made a murmur - as I say, it's amazing how quickly
you can learn to do it effectively.
The tumour on
his tongue grew at a fast rate and his tongue was pushed further and further
out of the side of his mouth. In the final weeks of his illness, part of
it started to wither and bits started dropping off. Also during his final
weeks, his muscles started to waste away and all his bones along his back
and hind quarters were visible. Considering he was a very large cat, this
was extremely distressing to see. He also developed chronic conjunctivitis
from his continued attempts to wash his face and getting food and dirt into
them. His final few days were heartbreaking for us - his breathing had
become laboured and difficult and he was suffering from extreme anemia. The
vet advised us that it was time to end his life as it was no longer fair to
keep him alive. We took him home that night unable to go through with it
there and then, but eventually made an appointment for a couple of days
later.
The Mouse adored going for rides in the car
(like Snoop) and we made sure we took him out for short drives regularly
during his illness, but his final journey to the vets on 20 January
2006, was horrendous. We got to the vets and waited in the car until we
were due to go in to the surgery - our usual vet was away that day and
we had a horrible replacement vet who just seemed so inefficient making
the experience harder than ever. Although the veterinary nurse was
superb and did everything she could to make us and him comfortable. We
took him down with his blanket, toys and photo's and she arranged
him with them really nicely before storing him in the freezer (god that
sounds awful) - we then arranged to drive him to the crematorium a few
days later. The staff at the crematorium were also extremely nice and
we had as much time as we wanted to say goodbye to him and to talk to
them about the process. We then arranged to take him home in a
specially chosen mahogany box, with his name engraved on top. He now
has pride of place in the middle of our coffee table. We weighed up the
pro's and con's of burying him, but as we don't plan to stay in our
house much longer, we decided we'd prefer to keep him with us wherever
we go.
One of the things that I have found helpful
to me during the grieving process (which is still very raw) - was to put
together a collage of photo's of him taken throughout his life. I have
put them in a really lovely frame and mounted it on the wall in our
house. My partner and I also talk about him regularly - I know that the
pain will never go away, but by talking about him and having reminders
of him all around us, we are giving him the memory he deserves.
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