Hey yall, my boy Winnie has officially been diagnosed with cancer. We were told he has the Feline Lukemia gene since we got him from the shelter 7 years ago. At the time they said he could get sick with Lukemia at any stage of his life, but we were blessed with 7 long years of a healthy indoor life so far.

Last week he stopped eating his food and acting extra lethargic, so I brought him in for bloodwork and tests, and although we haven’t gotten the official lab results back (to see if it was maybe a kidney infection or anything else), they recently got a look at his blood under the microscope and called me to confirm what looked like cancer cells.

I will hear back from the lab tomorrow, but it sounds like my options are basically to either put him through chemo (which could be painful/stressful and might not have promising results), palliative care (steroids and meds to keep him comfortable as long as possible), or to put him to sleep.

Obviously I’m heart broken but it’s something that we’ve been expecting at some point; 7 years is long but he’s still just a baby to me.

I’m wondering if anyone here has cared for a cat with lukemia, and what this stage looks like. The vet told us that once it starts it can progress very rapidly, within weeks. Currently my boy is weak and laying around most of the day, but we have meds to get his appetite going so he has been regularly eating and drinking water. I want to go the route of palliative care because I’m not ready to say goodbye. My concern is how much pain will he be going through if I keep him around for a while? I love him to death but the last thing I want is for him to be in pain. What symptoms besides lethargy should I watch out for? How long realistically can I keep him comfortable with meds/steroids?