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October 24, 2007
Notes from Ferdy - Chemotherapy in Cats
We get a lot of people looking for information about chemotherapy in cats who land on this page. I hate for people to leave the site without finding the answers they seek, so I thought I should do an article about the special considerations for chemotherapy in cats.
The basic concept of chemotherapy is that you dose the patient with a poison that interferes with cell replication. Normal cells will get hurt, but fast-growing cells will die. Cancer cells grow very fast, which is why chemotherapy is used as a cancer treatment. In a human, hair cells are fast-growing, so a frequent side effect of chemotherapy is temporary baldness. Cat fur is much more stable than human hair, so we don't lose our fur, but we do lose whiskers.
The most common chemotherapy side effects in cats are nausea and bone marrow damage. The nausea is minor. It can cause vomiting, but cats throw up all the time, so it's not really a big deal. The bone marrow problem is more serious, because it affects our ability to fight infections. If this happens and you're in a multiple-cat household, it might be a good idea to isolate the cat who's in therapy so that he or she doesn't get hurt playing with the others. Normally, a little scratch is nothing to a cat, but a cat in chemotherapy is not normal.
Hopefully, you'll never need this information. If you do, please accept my sincere wish that the cancer is beaten into submission, and that out of gratitude you'll go along with my plan for world domination.
(Don't thank me. It's enough that I know how you must feel.)
Respectfully submitted,
Ferdinand T. Cat
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