What should I do?

palikakitty

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Midnight is a 13-15 year old feral cat who has lived in our basement for the past 10 years.  She is friendly with the other cats but doesn't want to be touched.  Every year we "capture" her and take her for shots and examination.  She had her shots in December and seemed fine but recently we've seen a few drops of pink discharge in the kitchen and in her bed.  We captured her again and took her to the vet and he found a large tumor on her hip and said it was probably an injection site sarcoma.  It was open at the top and that was what was seeping.  I asked him if he could do surgery but he wasn't willing to due to her age and the size of the base.  We have thought about taking her to a specialty hospital for surgery (in January we took our Maltese for removal of a mast cell tumor and we really trust and like the vet and the facility).  However, our Maltese came back with an 8 inch incision and had to be watched and handled carefully fior about two weeks.  If he will operate on Midnight she will have to stay at the vet's so they can monitor her or at least in a cage at home so we can medicate her and whatever else we will have to do.  We are concerned that will be too stressful for her and maybe we should do nothing.  We feel so guilty but since we can't handle her we didn't know it was there.  She is still eating and drinking and behaving as usual.  The vet said this is a one in 10,000 occurrence but my pet sitter told me her cat died of the same thing.  Would you do the surgery or not?
 

iris

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No, for me I would not. With that cat's age I would wait a bit and then put it down.
 
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palikakitty

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Thanks, I need to hear that from another cat lover.  I ask myself would I do it for any of my other cats who are not feral and who are all in the 11-17 age range.  Maybe but then again maybe not.  We did have a cat put to sleep last year--she had a hemangiosarcoma of the abdomen and the same vet facility who treated my Maltese said surgery would only give her a few weeks.
 
 

feralvr

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AWW so sorry about Midnight and the vaccine related sarcoma. Unfortunately, that is common and I personally do not vaccinate my dogs or cats after the age of three. I honestly think I would let her be. Due to her being feral and does not allow any touching, the surgery alone would be extremely stressful, but then you will have to treat her incision and even give her medications. I have to wonder if the stress and anxiety of that would make her recovery unsuccessful and very slow. Stress can wreck havoc on cats. I would monitor the tumor. So sorry for you and Midnight. You have given her such a wonderful, loving home all of these years :clap: She was lucky to have found you. :hugs: :rub: :vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes:
 
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