My cat Bear has a bump on his leg

First off, he has a vet appointment first thing tomorrow morning.

Okay, so when my husband and I got home today we went to pet Bear, he always waits on his kitty condo for daddy to come home. Hubby petted him and immediately felt a lump on his left hind leg. It is very high up, on his side almost. It is about the size of a dime. It is very hard, and does not seem to hurt when we touch/poke it (so we think it is not an injury). Neither of us had noticed this before.

Bear does not go outside, but we do have a dog Sadie who does. I would think if Bear had been bitten by some bug it would hurt so I don't think it was because of that. We checked the other cat Felix and he has no bumps. There are no other bumps on Bear. He did have his first flea medication this month but it was on his back, nowhere near the bump.

I'm going nuts now worrying because he is my baby. Felix is more my husband's cat and Bear is my little boy and if anything hurts him I will be heartbroken. I'm having a really bad day and this just made it worse.

My husband says one of his cats in childhood had many benign tumors all over, and was fine. Hopefully that is all this is, but does anyone have any other ideas as to what this could be?

It is good you have an appointment with your vet tomorrow and I hope that it's not serious.
I had a Scottish Fold many years ago who had a tumor on her hind leg(up towards her thigh area) that started out pea sized and grew very fast. It did turn out to be a cancerous tumor and was removed only to return months later. We wound up having her leg amputated and she did great for 6 months and we thought we had it beat. Sadly the cancer had spread to the rest of her body and she lost her battle.

It is very important to get Bear to the vet to find out what the growth is. It may not be anything serious, but if it is the sooner you can treat it the better your chances are.

Yeah we made the appointment as soon as we found it, we don't mess around with our babies. What your scottish fold had sounds just like Bear, this thing appeared practically overnight and my husband thinks it is bigger already. My appointment is at 8:30 am. I'd rather pay for a vet visit to find out it's nothing than wait and find out too late that it's serious.


I'm sorry to hear about your scottish fold, I hope I didn't bring up too many sad memories

I posted on another forum and someone asked if he was recently vaccinated - and he was about 2-3 weeks ago. It is in the spot where he got the shot. So now I think it is a reaction to the vaccine. I am going to the same vet who did the shot so I will ask her about this. They called it "vaccine-site sarcoma". I am googling it to find out more.

Has anyone heard of this or had their cat have it?

I wondered if that was what caused Shatazar's cancer. When she got her cancer it was in the early 90's and I didn't start hearing about sarcomas from vacinations until a few years later. Her cancer was called (something) sarcoma, I can't remember the first part.

I hope Bear will check out fine and nothing serious is wrong. Keep us updated on what you find out.

We went to another vet since ours was closed due to no power and no windows, and he said it was scar tissue. He took a sample of it and did not find any cancer cells - which makes me so relieved. He gave some medicine to reduce inflamation and said if the lump does not go away in 30 days to take him to our vet to have it removed.

I feel so much better but I will keep a close eye on this and see what happens. Thanks guys!

I am glad it isnt Cancer. My friends Cat got Cancer from a Shot.

holy cow, i didn't know about this! i wonder how common sarcomas form vaccines are. i'm very glad to hear it wasn't the case for Bear!

Its more common then people think.

Honestly, I am not sure his diagnosis of scar tissue from a bite is right. Neither of the cats has ever bit one another and if they did why would they bite on the leg in the exact spot they got vacc'd?

If this medicine he gave us does not make it go down I will go right to our vet, when their office reopens.

It's not like I WANT him to have a sarcoma but I think he wasn't really listening to me that the cats don't fight. I'm thrilled the vet didn't find cancer cells but I think there is still a problem beyond a scar. :/

Both of my cats have had bumps after getting shots (not just vaccines), and it didn't turn out to be cancer (than goodness). So it could be just a reaction from the shot. I think I might take Bear to you regular vet when you get a chance, just to get his opinion on it. Hopefully, it will turn out to be nothing serious

Thanks,
I am going to take him as soon as they are open again. It's only $20 for an office visit and it will give me peace of mind.

Thanks for the reply Misty - nice to hear from someone who's kitties were okay!

(Thanks everyone else too, it is always great to have people to talk to who understand)

I have a question about the meds - they gave us prednisone to give him twice a day. I was sick last night and forgot the second dose. Should I give him an extra dose this morning with his first? Or should I spread 3 out over the day? Or just forget about that dose?

I would not double up. Just give the doses as normal today (just the two) and you'll end up giving the meds for one extra day.

http://www.1800petmeds.com/Prednisone-prod10124.html

That is a question for your vet. I wouldn't double dose anything unless directed by the Dr.