Some info on Floyd

So I know there are some new visitors here, and there have been some questions about Floyd so I just wanted to give a quick rundown of what is going on. First, people have asked how old he is - he will be 14 in November. Next the diagnosis-

Almost 2 years ago (around Thanksgiving 2007) Floyd started acting strange and has lost a bit of weight. We took him to the vet, found a low grade infection, and put him on amoxicillin. He responded well, gained weight and everything seemed ok. About 6 months later, he started acting crazy hungry and it was obvious he had lost weight. He actually got pretty aggressive with the begging so we took him to the vet and assumed the infection was back - put him on the amoxi again, and he gained weight. Then late last year we noticed he had lost a lot of weight fairly quickly (he was at his largest about 24 lbs, when we took him in he was down to 11 - he should be around 17). The vet suspected it had to be something else (liver or digestive related) so we took him to get an ultrasound and liver biopsy. The ultrasound showed his liver was a bit inflamed but everything else was ok. His blood tests to this point had all been normal, so they did the liver biopsy but also did a new bloodtest that came out in October to check for pancreatitis. He was positive for pancreatitis (mild) and hepatitis (also mild) and because those two often come with intestinal problems like lymphoma or inflamatory bowel disease we decided to get him checked at the specialist. We took him to the specialist in early February and they did an intestinal biopsy and determined that he had alimentry lymphoma. The problem with Floyd's diagnosis taking so long is that other than the weight loss he hasn't shown any signs of having any of the three - no loss of appetite (until now), no excessive vomiting (he is a barfer when he eats too fast but that is how he has always been, and he is hairy so he has his fair share of hairballs), no change in behavior, and good blood test results. So he is a bit of an odd case. They gave us three options - wait and see, chemo at the vet or chemo at home - the first one had almost no survival rate and the other two had the same 6 months - 2 years, possibly more if we were lucky. Since Floyd hates going to the vet we went with the home option - a combo of prednisone and leukeran. He was on amoxi at the time so we kept that up - for some reason no one can figure out, he gains weight on it but looses when he is off. We have taken him off it a few times and he looses very quickly. He had been very good about taking his pills everyday in a cat treat, until last Monday. He stopped eating the treat so I had to give him the pill directly and he hates that and gets mad. He would leave and not eat but I thought it was anger because he was still acting normal, until Wednesday evening. Wednesday I noticed he seemed very boney (but he is still pretty heavy to lift) and that he was acting differently. He was also not interested in eating and wasn't really begging for food like normal (even when he is perfectly fine he is a food beggar). So Thursday I decided to take him to the vet on Saturday because he did lick his food once or twice on Thursday. Friday he did eat a little and then we took him and he was 14 3/4 lbs. He had been 16 lbs two weeks prior. The took more blood (which was harder than normal) and should have results today, but in the meantime he is up to prednisone 2 times a day (it had been 1). He was already acting a little more like himself on Saturday and he was more normal Sunday and today. He ate a bit yesterday on is own but I did use the syringe they gave me to give him his breakfast and dinner. He ate a little of his breakfast today and I gave him some through the syringe this morning to be safe. He had been eating treats and isn't barfing anything up (unless he found somewhere to do it I am not aware of - because I do a check daily anyway, because with 5 cats the odds are pretty good that at least a hairball came up overnight - plus Kirzon has always had a more sensitive stomach and barfs from everything - he is better now that we know his triggers like milk but he still gets an upset tummy sometimes - and before you suggest food for sensitive stomachs, we have tried that, he won't eat it and when he does he barfs because it is usually too rich for him - rich foods bother him but then he will go eat the cruncy stuff after and be fine.) He is getting more interested in the people food again (he ate a small piece of chicken last night). I have tried yogurt - I have plain and vanilla - we have done the vanilla and there was no interest from him (I don't blame him) and we will try the plain today - since he liked sour cream, it is more similar to plain I think. He likes vanilla ice cream so that is why I tried the vanilla yogurt first. The problem is that when he doesn't like it he shakes his paw at it and leaves. He likes the chicken temptations, the rest got the shake and leave treatment. We have tried other treats too - no interest (even the other cats passed on some of them). We don't give him much as far as supplements (I am giving him the high calorie goo that I forget the name of at the moment) because we don't want them to interfere with the meds, especially the leukeran which is the cancer drug. The increased prednisone will help stimulate his appetite, which is good. And he is drinking a lot of water, which he normally does. I will talk to the vet this afternoon and have more info - there is the chance he may need to visit the specialist again which will stink because it is expensive (around 875 for the last visit) and right now I don't have the cash for it but since it is harder to get in there, if we do have to go that will give me some time. I would just put it on a credit card, except that I don't use credit - when this all started in Feb I had money saved but the economy (no pay increase at our company this year) and some big expenses (the floor which was not a problem at the time, and the car which was unexpected) left me with almost no savings, but for me it is more important to take care of him, even if it means cutting way back on everything else.

Anyway, I think I have given all the info that anyone could ever want. I will have an update later after I talk to the vet, and will also try to put up a happier post with some pictures in it. If I missed anything you are curious about, let me know.