Bone spur or tumor

My 9 year old cat has a bone spur... so the vet says from the x-ray. Unfortunately, my friend had an elderly cat who also had a 'bone spur', which turned out to be cancer...

I supposed I'm worried about this being cancer... from what I understand, the only treatment for bone cancer is leg amputation, which I have decided would be too traumatic for my elderly cat. What should I do? Is there anything that would delay cancer growth if it is indeed cancer? It most likely is NOT, but I worry about her when I see her limping around the apartment. Poor girl...

I would ask the vet what steps should be taken to rule out cancer. Likely s/he'll recommend a needle biopsy, which is a minimally invasive procedure done under anesthesia. Depending on the results, the vet will recommend the best course of action.

If it is cancer (which is not certain!), I would not rule out amputation. 9 years old is really middle aged for a cat since they can easily live 15-20 years, and you'd be very surprised at how quickly they can bounce back from things that we'd view as really traumatic. An amputation is usually harder on the human than it is on the cat!

My uncle had a 3 legged cat who lived to be 19 years old! He had no trouble getting around (indoors only) and even had minimal trouble jumping onto high surfaces. I understand you being concerned, and would find out how to rule out cancer, so that you don't have to worry about it constantly.

Hope your kitty feels better soon!

I understand some of what you must be feeling. Ophelia developed a lump on her front leg..on x-ray it looked to be some kind of growth. We had it biopsied and got inconclusive results..biopsied it again, same thing. Consults with orthopedic surgeon and a specialist by our vet, everyone was baffled by the x-ray and biopsy results.

I was hesitant to do the amputation, and didn't feel we could afford a bone graft, by the time we got done discussing everything, I was told it was probably cancer and had probably metastisized. We chose to love her up and see how things went.

On a followup exam a couple of weeks later, it was discovered she was regrowing bone in this area...my vet was flabbergasted (I am not exaggerating a word of this). This was about 2 years ago...she is our miracle..still has a lumpy leg but she is fine (if one ignores her asthma that is...)