The cure rate for cat cancer varies tremendously with the type of cancer and the stage that we find it in. Just like with people, if we catch something super early, the outcome is generally better. You may have a melanoma on your skin, and if we catch it early and get it off, that may be the end of it. You may have a melanoma in your skin that sits there for five years, and it's already metastasized to the lungs, so it does depend on the time when we catch it, but really, there are many cancers that we can completely cure in cats. Make sure to have an annual cat wellness exam, and get in early if you find a funny lump or bump on your cat.

Yeah, for sure. I think we learn more about cancer all the time, and in my career, which has been a pretty lengthy one so far, I've learned a lot more about cancers and how to treat them. We have more and more tools at our disposal to use. Chemotherapy is continuously being studied to know what's the best way to go. Surgery options change depending on when we do studies, and we realize what is a better way to go, whether surgery first versus chemotherapy, and so things do change all the time.

Again, treatment varies tremendously, but surgery and chemotherapy are probably the two most common.

It depends on the type of cancer your cat has. Let's say it's a squamous cell carcinoma of the nose or the ear. Then we're probably going to progress with surgery, and sometimes, depending on the depth of it or its severity, we may even consider some radiation. We may or may not do surgery with intestinal cancer, which we most likely diagnosed based on weight loss, vomiting, or diarrhea. We may just go straight to some chemotherapy, and chemotherapy in cats and dogs is a little different from humans. We use a lot of the same drugs. Many of these drugs are well-tolerated. Some are not as well-tolerated. And some are oral medications that you give at home, so don't be afraid of the word chemotherapy. It just means using chemical agents to attack the cancer cells. It can be in the form of IVs, but it can also be in the form of oral medications at home.

That's a very common one. Most dogs gain weight because they hit that midlife stage at the same age that they are getting spayed or castrated. Just like we all tend to put weight on in our thirties, pets can get a little heavier at that same time. There are many athletic dogs that are castrated or spayed that are not overweight. But you do have to watch what you feed them when they're not growing like puppies anymore.

Usually so. The groomers are professionals. They have managed a lot of different behavioral problems, whether the animal is just young and is new to getting groomed, whether they are maybe sensitive about their feet being touched, etc. Some of them are probably a little bit nervous and groomers are very used to that. And they're usually soft-spoken, they go slow, and they're gentle and they can get your dog groomed.

I get asked this question probably more than anything else is—how do you know what their quality of life is? And I think the best way I can answer it is, does your cat still do the things that they've always enjoyed doing? Does your cat still do the things that made them your cat, for lack of a better way to put it? It's different for every animal. Some cats enjoy eating, some enjoy chasing toys, some enjoy chasing a laser, and some like to sit at a window and wish they could chase the sparrows and squirrels outside. Whatever it is, can your animals still enjoy the day-to-day routines that are its life? Do they still behave the same way? Do they still get excited about the same things? If those things happen, then I would say that animal probably still has a fair quality of life. There are variations with everything, of course, but that's probably the most tangible message that I try to convey to people. They're going to lose weight as they age. They're perhaps not going to eat as much. Maybe they drink a little more. Those are all factors as well, but at the end of the day when we're making an end-of-life decision, it’s about whether they can still do the things that they've always enjoyed doing.