“Gatti” Pretorius
In Sept 2019, Gatti, a beautiful 10 year old male Siamese cat, came to our clinic because his owner was concerned that he had lost some dramatic weight recently (nearly 30% of his healthy body weight). Dr Ryan performed a thorough examination and Gatti was found to have a very large mass (about the size of an orange) inside his abdomen. An abdominal ultrasound was done and this showed that the mass was a very large fluid-filled cystic mass in the position of the where the left kidney should have been. A tiny sample was taken using a fine needle to aspirate some cells under ultrasound guidance. These cells were analysed in our in-house lab and sadly revealed malignant cancer cells. However Gatti still seemed to be happy and showed no signs of pain or illness other than losing so much weight, even full medical blood work done in our in-house lab was all normal despite Gatti’s age and cancer – a testament to Gatti’s strength and resilience.
Gatti’s dad wanted us to do whatever we could to give him the best chance possible to be pain-free and healthy for as long as possible, so the decision was made together to operate on Gatti and attempt to remove the cancer. Dr Ryan performed a total nephrectomy (removal of the entire left kidney) to give Gatti the best chance that no cancer would grow back. The surgery was a great success and Gatti did extremely well under anaesthetic and recovered well over the next few days. A sample was taken from the tumour, after it was removed, and sent for histopathology which confirmed the terrible diagnosis of Renal Transitional Cell Carcinoma, a highly aggressive cancer.
Despite this Gatti seems to only go from strength to strength, the owner reported that within days after surgery he was eating like never before and seemed brighter and more alert than he had in weeks. Eight months later, in May 2020, Gatti came to visit us again so that his dad could show off just how well he was doing. He had gained back all his lost weight and continued to show no signs of any further illness or problems. Well done Gatti!
Gatti’s case teaches us that even when our pets appear seemingly well, even small, sometimes subtle changes (like weight loss) can be an indication that something very serious is going on inside and they should be seen by a vet.
