Gental

About the Campaign

Gental is a 4-year-old female tuxedo cat with squamous cell carcinoma on her nasal planum, the hairless skin of the nose. Her oncologist at MedVet Silicon Valley, Dr. Sessaly Reich, has recommended electrochemotherapy, a treatment that uses electrical pulses to drive chemotherapy directly into the tumor. It is done under sedation, repeated every two to three weeks, and Gental is expected to need about three sessions at roughly $3,000 each. This cancer rarely spreads, and with treatment the prognosis is good.

Diva first noticed what looked like a scar on Gental’s nose. Her regular vet was not sure what it was and ran bloodwork, tried medications to heal it, and finally did a biopsy, which came back as cancer. By the time Gental saw the oncologist, the ulcerated mass was about two centimeters and extending down toward her upper lip. This type of cancer is caused by sun damage and shows up on the thin, pale skin of the nose in cats who spent their lives outdoors, which Gental did until rescued. Dr. Reich’s report favors electrochemotherapy over surgery or radiation given the size and location of the tumor.

Gental was a stray. You can see her right ear was clipped at some point when she was spayed by a TNR team. Diva started feeding her about a year ago and noticed after a few months that she was friendly and easy to handle, so she assumed the cat had an owner. She had a clipped ear from a trap-neuter-return program and a microchip that was never registered, and no one could be found. Diva named her Gental for how she is, and she is now an indoor cat.

Diva works in quality assurance and volunteers with 13th Street Cats, a TNR rescue. She has three cats of her own, feeds strays, and traps and fixes them on her own dime. She has already spent more than $2,000 on Gental’s tests, biopsy, and medications, and the oncology consultation alone was $400. Her savings are gone. She has committed to covering Gental’s ongoing follow-up care herself, which will be needed for the rest of Gental’s life since new lesions can appear. What she cannot cover is the $9,000 for the treatment itself.

Gental is young, active, and otherwise healthy, and this is a cancer that responds well when treated. Donations will cover her three electrochemotherapy sessions, sedation, and the recheck exams between treatments. All donations are paid only to the veterinarian. You can see the full doctor’s report here: clinicalSummary_Gentle