Finnegan was diagnosed with fibrosarcoma, which was in his soft tissue of his abdomen, but of course the symptoms started with weight loss, etc.. after all his testing over a 3 week period of time, it was determined he had the fibrosarcoma, a grade III heart murmur that was never detected prior, and non-regenerative anemia.
His abdomen and chest were clear for any other cancers. He was negative for FeLV. If they went through with surgery to take out the abdominal mass, they would have done a bone marrow test to see about the possibility of cancer being in the bones.
Because Finn had non-regenerative anemia, I chose to not go forward with surgeries. All three vets that I saw wouldn't tell me if the surgery would be curative or just end up with another diagnosis.
I didn't want to put him through surgeries, chemo, feeding tubes and blood transfusions to extend a life of suffering.
My question is: Is there ever a time when non-regenerative anemia corrects itself?
Dig far and long enough, and I’m sure we can find a feline patient somewhere who had non-regenerative anemia, received treatment and lived to tell the tale. I’m sure this is true of many illnesses. For those who don’t know, non-regenerative anemia is like it sounds - you have become anemic, and your body stops making new blood to replace that which you are losing.
Something happens inside when someone you love gets taken away from you. You sound like a well reasoned person, who made the best decisions she could. And yet, the helplessness and vulnerability still comes for us. Follows us. Washes over us, and as we get swept away, we search for things to regain some type of control. And they come in the form of “if only’s”…
We begin to push round pegs into square holes…because something has to fit, right? Why won't it fit?
My cat Zack had access to everything. EVERYTHING. And it came for me too.
So I’ll go back to your question.
Is there ever a time when non-regenerative anemia corrects itself? I’ve really only seen this when it was caused by a reaction to a medication or some sort of one-off insult to the body.
But I’ll tell you something. With people that care. Really care. We leave marks in the dirt above the graves. Because we can’t help but stir when our loved ones are below.
Take care,
Dr. Kris