Bungle's Story

Bungle and her brother, George, were born in May 1998 and joined our family in August 1998.

Like all kittens they were very lively and mischievous, but we found a very simple method of grabbing their attention. Turn on the taps in the bathroom sink! Peace reigned for a short while.

We had all intentions of letting them out when they were six months old, but a number of accidents involving cats on the road where we lived helped our decision to keep them permanently indoors. We had reservations about this initially, but after chatting to our vet and researching on the internet we found out that this was becoming quite common, especially in the US. (In many parts of the US it isn’t permitted to allow any animals, including cats, to roam unattended because of the fear of rabies).

To make up for them not going out, we made sure they had plenty of toys to play with as well as places to hide and things to climb. One of their favourite things was a large box into which we put cat toys (both bought and home made), screwed up paper, old egg cartons, strips of plastic packing tape, short lengths of cardboard tubing etc. Anything, in fact, that would capture their attention. They would dive into the box, spend ages scratching around, tearing paper, and then eventually they would leap out of the box carrying a prized find. The outside of the box was also well clawed and chewed – they seemed to know that this box was entirely their domain and they could be as destructive to this as they wanted. I am sure it saved our furniture and we never felt we had to shut them out of any room while we were absent.

They also had a fascination for our shoes, and any shoe left lying around was soon incorporated into a game, and balls of paper or other toys would have to be removed before the shoe could be worn again.

Although they didn’t go outside, we thought it would be a good thing to keep all their vaccinations up to date. It was keeping them safe – what harm could it do?

And this is how things went on from 1998 until the dreadful day in June 2004 when we found a lump in Bungle’s scruff area.

It was soon diagnosed as a fibrosarcoma caused by a reaction to the leukemia vaccination. The vets readily admitted that they hadn’t dealt with this before, so we were all in the dark about what to do for the best. We decided to have the sarcoma removed in July 2004. We had been told that fibrosarcomas were very hard to operate on as they put down many “roots” and if one little root is left behind, then it will grow back very quickly. We knew that a very wide margin was needed all round, but even so, when we collected Bungle from the vets we were shocked by the length of the incision and the number of stitches stretching nearly the length of her back.

In August 2004 we took Bungle to the Queen Mother Hospital in North Mimms for an MRI Scan. This would show if any residue of the sarcoma was remaining and give us an idea of her likely prognosis. Against all the odds, the scan was completely clear! We were overjoyed and naively thought the cancer would be gone for a couple of years – or a year at least.

Sadly, in September 2004 we felt some tiny lumps growing back in the same area. We made the hard decision that we didn’t want to put her through another major operation if it was just going to reoccur so soon.

The tiny lumps rapidly grew from less than pea-size to plum-size and by November 2004 we could see that these multiple growths across her shoulders would soon start to affect the movements of her front legs.

We were pleased that she was with us for Christmas 2004 although she was not as active as she had been. She didn’t jump up any more, and was very careful about how she jumped down, so it was obvious that the fibrosarcomas were becoming a problem to her, although she was still happy in herself. She was always pleased to see us, and would rub round our legs, waiting to be picked up for a cuddle.

Towards the end of January 2005 there was a marked deterioration and on February 4th, 2005, she was put to sleep.

As owners we feel terrible that it was our decision to continue giving Bungle the feline leukemia vaccination every year that eventually caused her untimely death at only six years old. We took this decision for the best of reasons, but in the end it was the wrong decision and we have to come to terms with that as best we can.

If only we’d known about this earlier ….
If only we’d asked for the vaccine to be given in the leg ….
If only we’d decided not vaccinate as neither cat went out ….
So many “if only’s” – but they don’t change anything now. We are bringing our sad story to your attention so that hopefully you won’t find yourself in the same situation one day.