Should we do surgery?

Dr. Marie replied:

I'm sorry to hear that Gus is not doing well.

It sounds like your vet is doing all of the right things. Cats with bowel issues can be very frustrating.

This is a really tough situation and the decisions are going to be hard.

Here are my thoughts, but ultimately the decision is yours:

If your vet is recommending surgery, I would agree that it is a good idea. Cats recover from surgery extremely well.

With surgery we can have an answer as to what is going on with him.

I know it is scary thinking that he may not make it through surgery, but here is how I look at things...if he is that unwell that he is not strong enough to survive surgery, then his time on this earth is short anyway. I would rather have my animal pass away before they got so ill that they were suffering.

If the vet finds out that he has cancer (possibly intestinal lymphoma which often mimics IBD), most cats do extremely well with chemotherapy. We tend to associate chemotherapy with a lot of bad things. Most people who go through chemo have a tough time. However, cats with lymphoma usually do extremely well.

Here is another possible outcome. If the vet does surgery and sees that there is an obviously large tumor, then I would recommend that he is put to sleep on the table. I know this would be hard, but again, this way he does not have to suffer for the last days of his life.

One other thing to ask your vet about is the possibility of using a medication called budesonide. This is similar to prednisone, but it works even better in the intestines and has very few side effects. Sometimes cats with IBD that are no longer responding to prednisone will do well on budesonide.

I hope this helps with decision making. The best advice I can give you is to trust your vet. The recommendations that they make will be in the best interest of Gus. They truly want what is best for him.

I really hope he does ok.

Dr. Marie.


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