Went in for a URI came out with a tumor

Has anyone ever seen or heard of something like this before? I searched around the forum and couldn't find anything....

I took one of my cats to the vet today for a URI. While the vet was examining him she noticed a small lump/tumor near his anus. Its pink and raised and its not actually on or in the anus. Its also not an anal gland. She was concerned because obviously there shouldn't be lumps in random places on a cat, so he is scheduled for surgery to have it removed and biopsied on Monday morning. I'm freaking out a little because my fear was that his URI was getting bad. I never expected him to come out of there diagnosed with a tumor that needed removal. The vet said she can't be sure if its cancer or something benign, but she did say that about 60% of all skin/surface tumors on cats are something to be concerned about. So now of course, I'm a nervous wreck and wanted to see if anyone has ever dealt with this before - and what the outcome was. I don't know if its an anal related tumor or just some kind of skin tumor, but the best way to describe it is that it looks like a large pimple - minus the white head part (sorry if thats a weird comparison but he's not letting me get a clear picture of it).

Probably not a good idea to stress him out and take a photo of it. Instead, what I do at times is go to Google Images and type the topic in and hit search and see if I can find anything that looks like what I am seeing on one of my cats. About the lump-I know it is hard, but don't stress about it beforehand. Your cat will pick up your nervousness and respond accordingly. It sounds like an anal polyp by your description. Honestly, anal cancer is rare in cats and more common in dogs. It is not a good idea NOT to remove it as they shouldn't grow there. But again, just take a deep breath and take it a day at a time.

So sorry to hear about the tumor. My Ziggy had one on his face and on his side a couple of months ago. My vet had also pretty much prepared me for a cancer diagnosis. However, the one on his face was just a simple basal cell tumor and the surgery completely cured him. The one on his side was a dermoid, also benign.

How old is your kitty? The younger the better as cancerous growths most often occur in older cats. You can do some searches on "cat skin tumors" and find a wealth of information. For some it's very scary to read, but I find it helps me to feel like I'm doing something--anything--while I wait. You know best whether to "go there."

Just try to relax and enjoy your kitty this weekend. Please post with any questions or concerns and do keep us updated on surgery, etc.

We aren't sure how old he is unfortunately. Our best guess is that he's about 6 years old, but he came to us as a stray who had very obviously been living a rough life on the streets (several scars and a torn ear). He "found" us about 3 years ago and at the time the vet estimated him to be about 3, but also made it clear that he was at an age where its difficult to determine his age. She based it on the way his teeth looked, and since they looked pretty good, she estimated him at a younger age. But for all I know, he could be a lot older since she said that around 3-8 is typically a hard age range to judge. So I guess he could be as old as 11, but hopefully not.

I've been googling stuff but I haven't been able to find any good information. I have found stuff about skin tumors and tumors in the rectum, but I can't find much about a tumor in the general area that its in. I'm sure I'll be glued to google all weekend though, reading stuff. It scares me to read some of the stuff out there, but at the same time I like being prepared for the worst. I always go in with a "expect the worst but hope for the best" attitude. I find that makes it easier to get bad news that way. But since i can't find much info, I also haven't found any pictures that resemble what he has, though I've been looking.

It does make me feel better to hear that anal cancer is rare in cats, and in all my googling, I didn't search "anal polyp" so I'm off to do that now.