Run wild and free, beautiful boy! – 2023
Winston was a ten-year-old Fishing Cat that was privately owned. When his owner had to move and couldn’t take him, they contacted us to see if we had space. He arrived at the Sanctuary in February 2023 and we very sadly and unexpectedly lost him only two months later.
It was unexpected and heartbreaking. He had not been eating well for the past two days so our animal care director, Natasha, reached out to Dr. Penny Jacobs at Berry Hill Veterinary Center. The veterinary team made time for Winston right away, and he was examined on Sunday at 3pm. This is what Natasha wrote:
“Upon suspicion of a possible foreign body, we rushed Winston to the vet on Sunday. After initial diagnostics (X-rays, ultrasound, bloodwork, and manual palpation) Dr. Jacobs decided that the best course of action would be to do surgery.
In surgery, we found that he did not have a foreign body, however, his intestines looked extremely unhealthy. His liver was quite fatty and he also had an enlarged mesenteric lymph node. We moved forward by taking a biopsy of his intestines to submit to a pathologist. We also aspirated his lymph node. Unfortunately, the intestinal tissue was so degraded and compromised that it would not hold together with sutures when Dr. Jacobs tried to close up the biopsy site. Furthermore, upon examining the lymph node aspirate under a microscope, we found that Winston had lymphoma. The diagnosis was confirmed by three other vets in addition to Dr. Jacobs. We elected not to wake Winston up from anesthesia, but to let him go.”
For Winston the cancer wasn’t triggered by a specific reason such as poor diet or environmental causes. His former owners had taken very good care of him. Lymphoma is unpredictable and can present itself in many ways, including damage to the intestines. We have no way of knowing for sure how long Winston had cancer, we think it must have been there for some time.
We are heartbroken about this sudden loss of Winston. He was such a fun and fierce cat, and we all have been falling in love with him.
Run wild and free, beautiful boy! 💔
