Calypso leukemia update

[jennifer & korbel (GA)]

I took Calypso to the vet today. It is chronic lymphocytic leukemia. She did say that she has a very good prognosis. Most cats respond quickly to the chemo (oral) and go into clinical remission in a month or so and live a normal lifespan. She did say that we'd need to watch her to see if it comes back, but overall it's a good prognosis. Today was very $$$ because they did x-rays/ultrasounds to rule out lymphoma (luckily all clear). The rest of the treatment should be more managable. I'll take her to my own vet for CBC to monitor white cells and my vet/cancer vet will talk to eachother to determine dosage. I will take her to the cancer vet in 1 month for a reevaluation, but hopefully have at least a 2-month gap after that. Overall very promising.
Jennifer & Korbel

 

[Hope + (((Baby)))GA]

Well, that is good news to read if you have to read anything about a cancer. Hopefully all will go well for Calypso and thanks, Jennifer, for the update.

 

[Jess & Earl]

Sounds like you have a good plan in place, and have gotten a workable diagnosis too. Keep us posted.

 

[laur+danny+horde]

that all sounds surprisingly good. I hope everything goes real well for Calypso. When Danny was feeling a little punky the day after chemo, he would like to be hand-fed little bits of cooked meat, especially pork chop. So maybe try to have some favorites on hand for Calypso. Also you might consider some immunonutrition to boost her immune system to fight against chemo side effects.

Best wishes. I hope Calypso stomps the cancer into the ground. :RAHCAT

laur

 

[jennifer & korbel (GA)]

Thanks everyone
So far she is doing pretty good-luckily she wasn't outwardly sick at diagnosis. She is getting her chemo pill (chlorambucil (Leukeran)) every other day and prednisolone twice a day. Luckily I can do it all at home and she's easy to pill. She doesn't seem to have any ill effects from the chemo so far-she had her second pill last night. The biggest worry is that her WBC will drop too low. I've gotten a thermometer :shock: so that if she's ever acting sick I can tell if she has a fever in which case I am supposed to get her to a vet ASAP and get WBC checked.
I'm giving her a little bit of forbidden crunchy foods to help put some weight back on her (I did get EVO so it's not the end of the world if Korbel manages to get some too). She'd lost almost all of the fat/muscle on her back hips and I'd just thought it was due to age, but the vet thinks it's muscle wasting from the cancer, so hopefully she'll gain some of that back also.
Luckily this vet does seem pretty up on the alternative approaches also. She has me giving her L-glutamine and fish oil to help out her immune system.
The vet is very optimistic and everything I've read is optimistic about prognosis for chronic lymphocitic leukemia (as apposed to acute which is apparently very bad)