This Cat Has An Extremely Rare Case Of Cancer In His Eye
Fremont, California. Pietro, a playful, happy cat with beautiful cream-colored fur, is facing an extremely rare health issue–the fur baby has developed lymphoma in his right eye.
Pietro, also affectionately more commonly known as “Monster,” according to his mom, Kara Ramos, started to have a swollen right eyelid about six months ago.
Unfortunately, his family did not immediately connect the swelling with something that needed urgent treatment. Instead, they thought something was just irritating his eye and would eventually disappear.
“It seemed like nothing was wrong,” Kara stated as they first noticed the swelling. “His behavior was the same, his appetite was unaffected, his weight was unchanged, and he was just as affectionate, playful, and happy as always.”
However, the swelling did not go away as everyone thought it would but worsened steadily through time.
Kara had taken Pietro to the vet for months with medication that tried to reduce the swelling, but nothing worked.
Ultimately, she took him to an eye specialist, where she was confirmed with the worst news–their sweet boy had lymphoma.
Pietro’s condition was even more stressful for Kara because, during a consultation with an oncologist, the family was informed how Pietro’s case was extremely rare as cysts usually appear in the lungs or liver instead of in the eye.
GoFundMe; pictured above is Pietro
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And because of that, the specialist’s information on treatment is also minimal. So with Pietro, the team would have many things to figure out to move forward.
Essentially, the team has boiled down the effective treatments to surgery and chemotherapy. Both would take time and would not be easy to afford.
“My best friend and I maxed out our credit cards today to pay for today’s visit, and that’s still just the first of many,” Kara said in her original post.
However, even with the best treatments and care that they knew and could provide, it was still not 100 percent certain that Pietro would be fully cured of this type of lymphoma due to many unknown elements involved with his illness.
Kara believed this would not just be the battle for her and Pietro. It would also contribute to all the cats that might come across the same battle as Pietro.
For this reason, Kara started her GoFundMe page. While she has also been regularly updating on Pietro’s situation since May, Kara has also been giving out some good news.
The first good news was given on May 22, as Pietro’s initial tests, including blood work, ultrasounds, x-rays, etc., all looked good and without abnormalities in his body.
The cancer cells also seemed to be isolated in Pietro’s eye area, meaning there is a greater chance for him to beat cancer.
There was even more good news about Pietro on May 28 and May 31, as he received his CT scan and mandibular lymph node cytology.
As a result, no cancer at all in Pietro’s lymph node, and the tumor hasn’t gone behind the eye. Therefore, the surgery should obliterate it for Pietro!
Pietro’s surgery is now set to be on June 27. There would be an unfortunate thing for this sweet boy–his surgery will remove both his eyelid and eye to eliminate the tumor. And two weeks after the surgery Pietro will start the chemotherapy.
Pietro is still on his journey fighting off his illness. Please visit Kara’s page to follow up on this brave little warrior and send some love.
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