Have You Seen This Belly?

I woke up this morning to Harry lying on my shoulder as usual, reminding me that he was on the brink of starvation as he was most days, what with him never getting food or love. (My cats can be positively Dickensian when it comes to the Food Ploy). As usual, I grabbed him and rolled him onto my stomach, holding him tight and calling out "Prisoner of Love!" while he purred.

It was then I noticed his swollen belly was... well, gone. I kneaded his stomach; where there had been a tight swollen drum of tummy was his usual soft self. What the----?

My vet called me at work to confirm that the slides showed a form of lymphoma, and I told her about Harry's vanishing belly. Apparently, this is a sign that the prednisone she put him on is having an effect; in cancers like this it has a short-term "anti-cancer" effect of shrinking tumors, so she thinks it has shrunk the tumors in his lymphatic ducts such that they can drain properly again. It's not a fix, but for now it means Harry can be more comfortable, and right now, that's good enough.