So I've been posting about my cat Hemmy. In case you missed in, Hemmy is about 9 years old. He's a neutered DLH male cat that's had a whole host of medical issues throughout his life the big one being chronic UTI's that resulted in an emergency amputation of his penis to allow crystals to flow through more freely. He very nearly died then but since his surgery and diet change he's been very healthy.
He is quite accident prone so our vet has seen a lot of us for other issues as well. Thankfully they were all minor and easily treated. It just seems we can't stay out of the vet's office with him.
So last Tuesday I discovered some bumps on his stomach, in his nipples actually but I've not been that specific with my posts before now out of discretion for Hemmy's feelings. What male cat wants his nipples discussed? Fearing no good, I took him to the vet on Wednesday. We decided to treat with antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory. The thinking was that if it was an infection, we would know as the meds cleared it up without having to do invasive surgery and biopsies.
The meds didn't work and I took him back to the vet on Monday where we decided to do surgery as quickly as possible since it was clear it wasn't an infection and if the places were cancerous we wanted to remove them as quickly as possible. My vet assured me that this was rare in male cats but it could sometimes happen and we didn't want to take any chances.
So, I dropped him off for surgery on Wednesday morning saying many prayers that the biopsies would show the places as benign. My vet called me at about 11. I was immediatly concerned because that seemed too early to be done. We had decided to do blood work to make sure he didn't have anything going on with liver, kidneys, etc. that might prevent surgery. Naturally, my first thought was that something came back that caused them to not do the surgery.
You can imagine my surprise and relief when my vet told me there was good news. Earlier this year, we'd given Hemmy a prescription for spraying. He's a bad sprayer and usually I can stop him but this was a very bad bought and my youngest cat was peeing wherever Hemmy sprayed and my house was beyond disgusting so I did what I swore I would never do and I medicated for a behavioral issue but I felt I was out of options. Hemmy took his meds exactly as prescribed because my vet told me it was important to do so. We didn't miss a single one.
Because he'd been on this medication something kept nagging at my vet. She started pulling out books and doing research. She read everything she could find about the medication. This had occurred with a scant few dogs before, but never with a cat. She couldn't believe it. When Hemmy arrived for surgery on Tuesday she shaved around his nipples and took a close, close look. She squeezed. Out came milk! My neutered, male, penis-less cat is lactating! All I could think of when she told me was that scene in Meet The Parents where the main character says, "You can milk anything with nipples."
We believe it should clear up on its own but are watching it in case it doesn't. We've not yet discussed what will need to be done if it doesn't but I can already tell a difference. I offered to take him back up there if she wanted to do a paper on him. Since this have never been documented before it might be important to take a few notes, you know what I mean? She was so surprised at what she's found but having lived with Hemmy for seven years I'm really not all that surprised. If any cat could do it, it's him!
So, we are very relieved that Hemmy is as ok as lactating male cat can be. Thank you very much to everyone who's asked about him and said prayers for us. I appreciate them more than you know.
Oh, yeah, one more thing. I told the vet that if he has kittens I'm holding them responsible for finding them all homes. She told me that she doesn't think he's grown a uterus. I told her she doesn't know Hemmy very well!
He is quite accident prone so our vet has seen a lot of us for other issues as well. Thankfully they were all minor and easily treated. It just seems we can't stay out of the vet's office with him.
So last Tuesday I discovered some bumps on his stomach, in his nipples actually but I've not been that specific with my posts before now out of discretion for Hemmy's feelings. What male cat wants his nipples discussed? Fearing no good, I took him to the vet on Wednesday. We decided to treat with antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory. The thinking was that if it was an infection, we would know as the meds cleared it up without having to do invasive surgery and biopsies.
The meds didn't work and I took him back to the vet on Monday where we decided to do surgery as quickly as possible since it was clear it wasn't an infection and if the places were cancerous we wanted to remove them as quickly as possible. My vet assured me that this was rare in male cats but it could sometimes happen and we didn't want to take any chances.
So, I dropped him off for surgery on Wednesday morning saying many prayers that the biopsies would show the places as benign. My vet called me at about 11. I was immediatly concerned because that seemed too early to be done. We had decided to do blood work to make sure he didn't have anything going on with liver, kidneys, etc. that might prevent surgery. Naturally, my first thought was that something came back that caused them to not do the surgery.
You can imagine my surprise and relief when my vet told me there was good news. Earlier this year, we'd given Hemmy a prescription for spraying. He's a bad sprayer and usually I can stop him but this was a very bad bought and my youngest cat was peeing wherever Hemmy sprayed and my house was beyond disgusting so I did what I swore I would never do and I medicated for a behavioral issue but I felt I was out of options. Hemmy took his meds exactly as prescribed because my vet told me it was important to do so. We didn't miss a single one.
Because he'd been on this medication something kept nagging at my vet. She started pulling out books and doing research. She read everything she could find about the medication. This had occurred with a scant few dogs before, but never with a cat. She couldn't believe it. When Hemmy arrived for surgery on Tuesday she shaved around his nipples and took a close, close look. She squeezed. Out came milk! My neutered, male, penis-less cat is lactating! All I could think of when she told me was that scene in Meet The Parents where the main character says, "You can milk anything with nipples."
We believe it should clear up on its own but are watching it in case it doesn't. We've not yet discussed what will need to be done if it doesn't but I can already tell a difference. I offered to take him back up there if she wanted to do a paper on him. Since this have never been documented before it might be important to take a few notes, you know what I mean? She was so surprised at what she's found but having lived with Hemmy for seven years I'm really not all that surprised. If any cat could do it, it's him!
So, we are very relieved that Hemmy is as ok as lactating male cat can be. Thank you very much to everyone who's asked about him and said prayers for us. I appreciate them more than you know.
Oh, yeah, one more thing. I told the vet that if he has kittens I'm holding them responsible for finding them all homes. She told me that she doesn't think he's grown a uterus. I told her she doesn't know Hemmy very well!
