September 2025 Elizabeth Has a Cancer Scare and Surgery

September of 2025, Elizabeth had her annual physical. The doctor discovered a huge lump in her chest, near the nipple. This typically indicates breast cancer for cats. Yes, they can get breast cancer. So, we got an appointment to see Jimmy’s oncologist (for his lung cancer which I previously posted about) and surgery and a CT were arranged for the same day. 

She had surgery in late September. She recovered quickly since it was not as deep as Jimmy’s. She was not on fentanyl patch like he was so she was not as bonkers. She was confined for two weeks, not the four he was. She wore the same sweaters and onesies that he did and was not bothered by them. She did not sleep in the litter box like he did. I spent the day and night with her in the small guest room. After two weeks she could roam the hall and be in the larger bedroom. We used the same baby gate at the top of the stairs, and the same pet stairs in the larger room for her as we had with Jimmy. After three weeks, her regular vet looked her over and said the incision had healed well enough that she couldn’t rip it out if she licked it so the sweaters could come off. (And she didn’t lick it afterwards.) 

She did not feel well a few days after surgery. She was lethargic and not eating and developed diarrhea eventually. I took her to the regular vet who gave her fluids and rechecked blood work. It just took time to recover but she seemed better after receiving fluids.

The lump was not in the nipple-a good sign for not being cancer; it wasn’t in the chest wall or muscle-another good sign. It was a large non-cancerous cyst. She had a deep long incision-not as deep as Jimmy’s lung surgery incision-but low along the belly, under the right arm. 

Unfortunately, the CT did show a lump in Lizzie’s lung, possibly lung cancer. But she had an updated xray this February 2026 and the lump is still very tiny. Too small to remove but since it is not growing, they doubt it is cancer. Further xrays in the next few months, and a recheck with oncology in August (with possible CT follow-up) will be needed to keep an eye on it.

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9/23/25 Elizabeth has a CT and surgery today to remove a lump from her chest. We'll know more later.

9/24/25 Elizabeth is home. Don't be alarmed by the surgical site. It's lower than Jimmy's lung surgery surprisingly. I guess I hadn't realized how low it would be. She refuses to wear a collar but we do have the sweaters and the newborn onesies that Jimmy wore so hopefully she keeps those on and doesn't bother the surgical site. She's restricted for a week in the room. And then she can have partial mobility to the upstairs. And then after two weeks she can go up and down the stairs if she is good and the surgical site is good. Then after three weeks she can go up and down the stairs throughout the house into the basement and climb the cat tree. So slow steps just like with Jimmy. She's not on a fentanyl patch so she is not acting loopy and weird like Jimmy did.

9/26/25 Lizzie – wasn't feeling that great on Thursday and wasn't eating. We gave her ondansetron the anti-nausea medication. That didn't make her eat. We gave her mirtazapine an eighth. (It is a good appetite stimulant but the cat must be feeling well/healthy enough for it to work.) That did not make her eat. We hand fed her 25 mL of food every couple of hours. And 6 mL of water. That helped spur her to feel better. And maybe it also helped the medication to eventually kick in. She finally started eating on her own late in the evening. But we had spent the entire afternoon and evening hand feeding her to keep up with her nutrients and her energy. Because her body needs more energy post surgery than you might imagine and we can't have it eating up her physical reserves.

She goes back this afternoon to the vet for a blood recheck and more fluids. She was getting fluids twice a week for her kidney disease but had been on fluids Tuesday and Wednesday at the hospital. And they thought she wouldn't need more fluids until Monday her regular visit. But maybe she needs them sooner. 

9/28/25 How to stop diarrhea-information in the story: 

Lizzie is doing well. Her blood test came back. We took her in on Friday. She's stable. She still has CKD3 so we need to continue to monitor. But she's stable. Her red blood cells are good and strong. Potassium is strong her electrolytes in general are good and strong.

She was not eating yesterday however and she has diarrhea. Perhaps from anesthesia. We hand fed her after she wasn't eating for a few hours. We can't let her go without eating for a long time because she's in recovery from surgery and her body needs the energy. And you should never let a cat go more than four or five hours without eating. Unless they've eaten a huge breakfast of course. But if your cat woke up and nibbled and then didn't want to eat something for a few hours there could be something wrong.

So we hand fed Elizabeth and then we also gave her water by mouth. I gave her 25 mL of Hills KD because it's easy to syringe. And 6 mL of water. We did this every three hours. Because she had diarrhea and she wasn't feeling well I didn't want to force a lot of food on her at once. 

To get rid of the diarrhea of course a probiotic works well and we use is Forta Flora by Purina but that's added to the food and she's got to want to eat the food. Instead I use my go to solutions which is sweet potato or pumpkin baby food or pumpkin purée. You have to make sure these are no salt no sugar no spices no flavoring.

Pumpkin purée in the vegetable aisle is not the same as pumpkin pie filling. You want to avoid pumpkin pie filling. No spices no flavorings no sugar no salt hopefully. 

You could add a tiny bit of salt and I mean only 10 grains to what you give if your cat doesn't have HCM, or high blood pressure. Salt is a necessary electrolyte; it helps the body retain fluid, increasing blood pressure. Vomiting and diarrhea depletes fluid and therefore electrolytes like salt and makes you dehydrated. This makes you weak and nauseous. And severe dehydration creates vomiting and diarrhea, an endless cycle. 

I syringed up the pumpkin and gave her 9 mL of pumpkin purée (or baby food pumpkin or baby food sweet potato.) I also did feed her by hand tiny pieces of banana. Banana you can mash it up and add it to the food if they're eating. If they're not eating you can try to give it to them by mouth if that's the only thing you had around at the time. 

The best solution to solve diarrhea is to boil rice in a lot of extra water. It has to be enough rice so that you get the fiber from the rice. And it has to be enough water so that the rice doesn't soak up all of the water. Then you drain the rice out or you scoop the rice out while reserving the water. You let the water cool and then you syringe up and you give about 9 mL of this to the cat. I repeat every 2 to 4 hours depending on how upset is the gastric system. So I gave it to Lizzie this morning and I gave it to her this afternoon and she's doing much better and she's been eating on her own today also. 

So we will continue to take it one day at a time. We did put up the baby gate at the top of the stairs and we let her out of the bedroom so she's got the hallway. She's not allowed to go up and downstairs or to climb so she can't have the other bedroom. 

10/15/25 Lizzie considered fully healed shirt off she can now roam the house freely. 

Lizzie slept on my desk if I was working.

Lizzie in post surgery sweater.

Elizabeth Spent 2025 Battling Gastro Issues and That Continues

So, Elizabeth. She has had CKD-kidney disease-since March 2024. She has spent two years being mostly hand fed, going through few times of eating without assistance. She has had to be fed five times a day at 50ml of canned food at a time-or less if she is eating enough during the day. Her weight was down to almost 11lbs this fall, and then we got it up to 12lbs in order for her to maintain a level that leaves room for any future weight loss before we must be aggressive with hand feeding. (We need to prevent fat and muscle loss and muscle wasting which can happen with CKD.) For more on CKD, check out the comprehensive site "Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline CKD" blog guide.

We use Hill’s KD canned because it is very easy to syringe up in a 10ml syringe and then to gently feed her. It takes about ten minutes. You cannot rush pushing food into their mouths. They can’t choke or inhale. Too much food and they spit it out. When she developed gastro issues in 2025, we had to feed her Hills’ ID which is not as easy to syringe up. But too much ID and her CKD increased; too much KD and her gastro issues increased. So, late in 2025, we began to mix almost half and half KD and ID canned food in one Tupperware dish, then spend a day or two feeding her from it (how quickly it goes depends on how much and how often we need to feed her via syringe.) Some days I try to do 2/3 ID and 1/3 KD; then 2/3 KD and 1/3 ID; then half and half or something akin to it. 

She receives a ¼ Mirtazapine pill once a week. When her gastro system is doing well, she responds and will eat enough for a few days on her own with little hand feeding from us. But we do feed her 3 times a day at 30ml to 40ml per feeding depending on her needs. She often eats overnight which is a good sign. What is not a good sign is when she does not eat overnight or the Mirtazapine does not respond well and she barely eats despite it. 

She has gone through these bouts of not feeling well. She has had bouts of diarrhea since the fall since she had surgery (more on that with another post.) Since she does not eat enough on her own, I have been since the fall, giving her daily by mouth with a syringe, a packet of Forta Flora mixed with 2ml of water or rice water (more on that in a moment) which she receives in the afternoon. She receives it in the afternoon because she is on an antibiotic and stomach supplements (antacids, fiber) tend to interrupt the absorption of antibiotics. That seems to help her. Rice water-1/2 cup of rice and three cups of water boiled until the rice is cooked but just cooked and the rice is not left to soak up the water; I scoop out the rice with a slotted spoon, put that into a container and freeze it, drain the water into a plastic container, and I should have enough for a week; any more than that and I put it into a container and into the freezer-works fast and is easy to make. (It can spoil so that is why I make sure I have enough for a week and put the rest in the freezer.) I give her 6 to 10ml of rice water twice a day depending on if she has diarrhea or how much she has (is it soft, liquid, more than once a day, etc.) If her bowel movements are solid, then I can skip it for a few days. But I have to monitor it closely so that it does not return too severely. (Diarrhea is uncomfortable, causes a loss of fluid and in the fluid a loss of electrolytes which makes the body feel run down and then that depletion of sodium [which regulates the body] causes more diarrhea [and vomiting if a cat or human is vomiting] and can lead to other gastro issues like stomach acid, ulcers, bleeding in the lower GI, etc.) 

Why does she have gastro issues? She has IBD, at times pancreatitis, a thickened GI tract, and some liver issues. This means she has inflammation. But because she has CKD, she really should not have steroids. And she recently developed a minor heart issue so I do not want to risk her heart health by giving steroids. Yes, her gastro system would likely improve with steroids but then the rest of her would likely severely fail-her kidneys would tank (we saw that in December 2024 with Roxanne-more on her later; and we know that heart disease cats cannot have steroids due to the risk of CHF, and once CHF kicks in, the race is on to stop the heart from failing.) 

I can tell when she is not feeling well by how she looks or appears to be uncomfortable, and does not eat. She is on medication to help her. She has taken Veraflox antibiotic for two months this past November 2025 into January 2026 but it worsened the diarrhea. It can cause gastro upset with prolonged use (we did not see that in Jimmy when he was on it for a month.) She has been off of it now for three weeks and her diarrhea cleared almost immediately. Typically, it’s given for 14 days on and then off but the vet wanted to use it longer to help her organs be less inflamed and infected. It can lead to higher levels of glucose, liver values AST, ALP, ALT (some of which we saw in her bloodwork and Jimmy’s blood work), as well as an elevated white count (not sure why.) Additionally, she is on Metronidazole which we hope is helping. Also, she had been on Visbiome probiotic-the capsule was opened and the powder was added to water and given by mouth since she was not eating. But that also increased diarrhea; it too can cause gastro upset. When ceased, the diarrhea lessened. Her ultrasounds however, do not show improvement regardless of antibiotics or fiber.

Lizzie

Fish Based Food Allergy Might Be What Affects Jimmy Stewart Again-or Idiopathic Illness?

Last week, on Saturday, Jimmy wasn't eating well. So, I put fish Fancy Feast on top of his chicken pate for two meals. By Sunday night, he wasn't eating at all. Then he vomited.  I gave him 1/4 tab of Cerenia (anti nausea medication.) By Monday, I had to hand feed using Hills AD mixed with water, fed with a plastic syringe.  He vomited twice on Monday. I have Cerenia once again and on Tuesday.  Tuesday we saw the vet.

We ran full CBC/chem panel, PLI, and urine. NO signs of illness or infection appeared. His glucose and other electrolytes were normal so he's not pre-diabetic again. His liver and kidney values were great and the liver continues to respond to Denamarin (a supplement to improve liver function; his blood values had gone up last year.) He also had no signs of a fever. I thought he wasn't able to use the litter box but the vet said there were no signs of a blockage (which can happen with male cats), he wasn't showing signs of pain on exam, and the bladder wasn't hard from an inability to pass urine. Vomiting and not eating would contribute to not having produced enough urine to excrete.

Without signs of an illness, inflammation, or infection, there were no other medications prescribed. Meanwhile, the vet gave a B12 shot, sub q fluids as he was dehydrated; and I used Cerenia for the next two days (1/4 tab once a day.) By Wednesday he was better and eating enough on his own. By Thursday, he was eating normally again.  He continues to do well.

Was the illness created from eating the fish? Or the herpes virus for which he receives daily lysine? About three years, he began to lose weight and was always hungry. Various tests were run to no avail. He had also had bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. The vet said to try non-fish based foods and the problem was resolved and didn't return. Because he can become finicky, I've given a smidgen of fish food from time to time without issue. But not last week. Was it the fish? The only way to tell is to not give it ever again; give him time to make sure he's fully recovered. If this happens again, we will need to do further tests such as a gastro ultrasound, etc.

Sometimes cats do this. An issue will arise, tests will be done and it will turn out to be idiopathic-no known cause; and that home remedies and things such as having Cerenia on hand, and hand feeding the cat food and water, go a long way to help the cat recover. Sometimes all we can do is treat the symptoms and never find a cause. Of course, the symptoms can also be related to any variety of serious illnesses-cancer, FVP/FIP, heart disease, pancreatitis, food allergy, etc. And that is why we go to the vet to rule out/find a cause. We don't want to take chances.

Good home remedies for sick cats are feeding Hills AD mixed with water by hand using a plastic syringe; adding 1/8 tsp of corn syrup to the mix (if the cat isn't diabetic) for energy; giving rice water to stop diarrhea (poured off of boiling rice) via plastic syringe by hand, and giving regular water via plastic syringe by hand, and-when the cat isn't allergic to it-giving tuna juice for protein via a plastic syringe by hand. You can also boil chicken or beef and use that water (without adding salt or onion or garlic or spices) as a protein source to give by hand. Medications that help cats are Cerenia (anti nausea med-get from the vet); and in some cases of illness, you may use Pepcid, 1/4 tab (for antacid and inflammatory inhibitor.) Use under vet supervision and not long term.

NEVER let a cat go a day without eating. Cats may be finicky but not eating is not normal, is dangerous as it leads to dehydration, and dehydration leads to a whole set of health issues-weakness, further not eating, and death. And never let a cat have a severe bout of vomiting and diarrhea without trying home remedies to ease it and without seeing the vet.

Bette Develops Diarrhea Due to Antibiotics-Problem Solved with Sweet Potato

Bette is doing much better (see September 7 post.) She has developed diarrhea since Monday after a few days on the antibiotic. She is already getting Forta Flora in her food. I have added a teaspoon of baby sweet potato and that seems to have helped firm up her stool enough. For diarrhea, as long as it is not more than once a day-sweet potato, mashed banana, rice, rice water-are good home remedies. Add these to the food or give by mouth with a syringe if using baby sweet potato/banana. Forta Flora mixed into the food adds a probiotic which is suppose to help make a better gastro system (this is a really good product to use for any cat even if there are no gastro issues.) Had it been watery and or constant-more than once a day-these methods and maybe anti-nausea, anti-diarrhea medication from the vet, or IV fluids from the vet (to replace lost fluids) would help firm up the stool. There was a time when Kaopectate could be used safely (do not use Pepto Bismol) but I've since read that the formula changed and can be deadly for pets. The products have an aspirin related product which is toxic or can be if given in large or frequent doses. It's due to how a cat's body processes the aspirin. (And HCM cats may already be on aspirin for blood thinning therapy.) And some vets may not be aware of the change in Kaopectate. Be wary of any online/store anti-diarrhea medication. Check the ingredients to make sure the list does not include salicylates or bismuth subsalicylates.

Here's a Cornell University vet link about diarrhea:
http://www.vet.cornell.edu/…/Health_Information/diarrhea.cfm

(From the link below:)
"Bismuth subsalicylate is the active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol. Aspirin is also known as acetylsalicylate. In other words, both kaopectate and Pepto-Bismol contain aspirin derivatives...salicylate itself can cause toxicity, which is a special problem in cats, who clear the drug from their systems very slowly. This makes them susceptible to buildup of the drug to toxic levels...can interfere with other drugs that are commonly administered to pets. These include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as Rimadyl, Metacam, and Deramaxx as well as steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone, and dexamethasone...dogs also can suffer toxicity. Of significant concern is the risk of seemingly paradoxical exacerbation of gastrointestinal signs for which Pepto Bismol or Kaopectate might used, since salicylates can cause upset stomach in both dogs and cats."

Does Pepto-Bismol Work for Cats and Dogs? | Catster

A few weeks ago, a client at the emergency clinic where I work mentioned that she frequently gave her cat Pepto-Bismol to prevent gastrointestinal upset....

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Solve Cat's Diahrea Naturally-Rice or Bananas

Does your cat ever get diahrea? One of ours did the other day and I couldn't figure out why. She wasn't ill, hadn't eaten anything as far as I knew. It wasn't happening continuously, just first thing and again later. These things can happen to our pets just as they do to us. And the best way to solve it is the natural way-rice and rice water. I boiled rice and added extra water so that the rice

didn't soak up all the water. I drained the water. I put them into separate containers. I mixed in rice with her wet food and gave 3ccs of rice water every two hours. Cleared up the problem. If she had continued being ill, then I would have gone to the vet. And if it happens again soon, then I will go. But for now, the natural way of rice worked very well. You can also try bananas. You can mash up a banana in the cat's food.