First Toby, now Lulu- she has a tumor in/near Thymus Gland

Lulu is our 13 year old long haired beautiful sweet girl. We have been treating Toby with chemotherapy since last April when he was diagnosed with large cell lymphoma. 

Since Toby's diagnosis we've been feeding him many different foods at all times of day just to get him to eat, so we weren't surprised when the other cats didn't all show up at regular feeding times- seeing as how there was lots of every type of food all day.

I even thought to myself I need to stay on top of the other kitties' health as it would be just my luck if another of them got sick and I didn't notice. 

Sure enough I went to pick up Lulu one day and she was light as a feather- she is small anyhow, but she seemed to weigh almost nothing. She has such long fur, she was hiding that weight loss. 

Lulu had no symptoms other than eating less, which we didn't notice due to having food around at all times and not knowing when the others would decide to come get it. We took her to the vet, her blood test was normal, the vet said she had a slightly elevated white count but since her teeth weren't the greatest, she recommended we treat with clindamycin which we did via our cat sitter while we were on vacation in December.

I made her dental appt last Friday with the stipulation that they do an xray first to rule out anything else. We are experienced now after Toby's cancer. And while we were at the chicago veterinary specialty center with Toby getting his chemo, the vet called us to say Lulu had what appeared to be a large tumor int the area of her thymus gland, near her heart.

John and I discussed it and we decided to just go right to a surgeon and have it removed. It was suggested to us that we do a guided ultrasound first, but we know we just want it removed and pray that it is not cancer. 

Is there anyone else who has experienced this before? Do you think there are any risks just going from xray to surgery? 

Lulu's normal weight is 7 or 8 lbs and now she is down to 5 lbs. She is a normally tiny cat but now she is very underweight. If she were not a long haired cat we would have caught this. So many if's. I cannot usually hold her because she will then start a fight with the other cats to be the top cat and she will begin marking (she is a returned declawed pee cat, thank you original owners - not). 

I appreciate any experience, advice, insight. 

Oh, Barb.  I cannot believe this is happening to you, again.    I don't have any experience with this, nor do I recall ever reading about anyone else's experience with it, but hopefully someone here knows someone, etc, etc, etc.  Anyway, am sending out some vibes...this is just so unfair!

.

Oh Barb... !!!!!!!! I'm so glad that it is something that CAN be removed. We'd probably have opted for the same route. it's not cancerous, and there will be no complications. And more !!!!!!!

Hi Laurie, I should have been more precise in my first post, we don't know for sure that it is a tumor, it shows up on the x-ray as a mass that appears to be the size of an egg and the vet said it appears to be that, but it could be "whatever". The doctor recommended a guided ultrasound but John and I asked ourselves, to what end? The only way it would benefit us, is if the ultrasound showed that the mass was inoperable. 

It is a judgement call on our part to be sure, maybe it is inoperable lymphatic fluid again but Lulu is not throwing up, her stools are fine, she does not appear to be in any pain or discomfort and all we see is that she is eating less and sleeping more. She still shows interest in food, she just doesn't eat as much as usual. Plus when we did the guided ultrasound for Toby, they still could not determine what it was nor could they get a needle biopsy and said we had to do exploratory surgery anyhow.

The staff at the cat clinic already said something about the location being near the heart and could be difficult for needle biopsy, so we are in the mindset of let's just cut to the chase. She is scheduled to see the surgeon tomorrow morning and unless we opt otherwise, she may be in surgery then too. 

I just pray it is a benign thymus gland tumor.

Thank you very much too for your kind words and you too mrsgreenjeans, this whole thing flattened me, I was supposed to have already gotten her to the vet but I became so stressed that I got the flu and have been totally flattened since Monday nite. Today is my first day up and I am washing all the things I've sweated through this last week, piles of undone laundry, mail, dishes, dirty litter boxes and other stuff my husband can't bring himself to do after an 8 hour day and 45 mile commute each way :-(. I still need to go out for cat food. Thank god my friend Erin dogged my butt until I made a doc appt, then she came and got me and drove me to the doctor. If it weren't for her I would be a lot sicker right now and that much more behind on my consulting work. 

Anyhow yes thank you thank you for all your support!

Barb, I'm glad you've got a friend to help take care of you. :rub: Your plate is certainly full in ALL ways. :heart2: :grphug2:

I'm sorry I misunderstood, and thanks for clarifying.

it is both operable AND benign!!!!!!!

Barb, just wanted to send some positive vibes for you and and your fur babies. You poor thing- I am sending lots of vibes for less stress for you too. What a time you have had. I will cross everything that it is benign and operable.

Jen

OMG, she already may be in surgery, or post surgery by now!  I just realized as I was reading this that today was the meeting with the surgeon.

What the news?????????????????? 

Good heavens, you must have ESP! The surgeon just called about 10 minutes ago to say that they are going to begin her surgery now. So she is in the operating room right now. Everyone say a prayer that it is not cancer and can easily be removed. 

 for Lulu!!! I really hope it's not cancer 

The surgeon called and said she had a small growth the size of a raisin which they sent for biopsy, and the rest of the mass was an enormous fluid filled cyst. He said he has not seen this kind of thing very often and found it puzzling. 

Of course now we wonder should we have had this very expensive surgery, but I can tell you we would have been told it was necessary no matter what other prelims we did lol. 

We are just thankful that it is not a million other things. Pray the biopsy is ok too. 

For Lulu.

Can't cysts be a problem too?  I had a large Cyst on my ovary when I was in my 20s and had to have pretty much emergency surgery. 

I wish I knew the answer! On the great side, we are picking her up in about an hour and 20 minutes. She is doing great. I am hopeful everything will be fine. I'm going to have to get more work to pay for this but I hope it will all be worth it and she will be better. 

When will you get the biopsy results?  Don't you just hate weekends?  At least you get to pick her up TODAY, and not have to wait until Monday

mrsgreenjeens said:

When will you get the biopsy results?  Don't you just hate weekends?  At least you get to pick her up TODAY, and not have to wait until Monday :rub:

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I'm so glad she's coming home now! And I hope they don't make you wait long for the results. But I'm so glad both were able to come out!

And for while you wait for results. :heart2:

Good news on Lulu, the surgeon called tonight and said her tumor is benign! When we picked her up, they actually gave us a refund on part of the surgery too, because it was less complicated than what they expected. It was still thousands of dollars but not what we originally were charged, so as odd as it sounds, we are very happy for that. 

Lulu is running around and the surgeon said he was surprised that she recovered so quickly. Here are her pictures. We are of course really watching to see if she is eating more now or if it was just a fluke that she had a thymus gland tumor and happens to not be eating for a different reason augh. 

We like that they put an undershirt on her. We cut it off on the second day per their instructions. Then she pushed through her soft e collar until it was like a ballerina skirt on her stomach, chafing her stitches and also she began to bite at her stitches and I had to take her back. At that time they also removed the huge clear bandage that was covering the drain tube incision in her chest. Rather than give us another e collar they just gave us another tube bandage and cut holes for her front legs. It covers her stitches so she cannot bite them and is so much easier than the e collar!

Oh yeah I almost forgot, you can see in these pictures how small she is. Lulu is a tiny cat anyhow and with eating less she is just a little over 5 lbs. So tiny!!

Oh what a little doll! And FABULOUS FANTASTIC news that it's benign!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND YAY on her quick recovery - and your partial refund! You must be on :9: right now!!!!!

she continues to improve, and her appetite recovers!

So happy it is benign!!!   Hooray and best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Well I just posted in the Toby thread- we took them both to their respective docs today- Toby for more chemo and he is doing well- paws crossed and vibes needed! And Lulu got her stitches out. Last night she was running and jumping around as if she never had anything wrong with her to begin with- yay!

I have to tell everyone, she seems to LOVE LOVE LOVE her ribbed tube t-shirt that they put on her, so we asked for and got another one. It is like a lightweight kitty thundershirt. Who would ever think that a cat would like wearing a garment, but she wears it like a second skin and with much pride.

Lulu is a returned front declawed pee cat that we took in, and she is a tiny diva with a TON of energy, even at age 13 she normally acts like she is on speed  (see her pictures above). None of our other cats are declawed. Lulu loves to start mischief and vie for a higher spot on the pecking order. That usually results our other cats chasing her and biting mouthfuls of her long fur out of her, and then she will go pee somewhere. Not anymore tho!!  

Well now that she is wearing the t-shirt, the other cats will not jump on her and bite her. They seem to either know that she is recovering, or they just don't want to engage with the thundershirt. So all in all, I think Lulu will be wearing clothing from now on lol. The clothing also seems to make her a bit more peaceful, but maybe that is just her recovery. It makes her feel secure I think, so she is not quite so obsessed with the other cats(?)

See link below, I am going to call the center- we think this is what was put on her, we are going to order it, if so. I will keep you posted. I like using this instead of the bulkier thundershirts, which may be too much for her as she is only 5 lbs and very tiny. The only thing is, we need to watch for strings that come from where the fabric is cut, and trim them off. It doesn't shed strings really bad- after all, the surgical center uses these for all their animals - but for cats wearing them for a while, it is necessary to monitor for strings. I sew, so maybe I will just do a stitch around the neck and leg holes and the back lol.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh I'm SO glad to hear she's so happy, and doing so well!

Did you ever hear back from the get in touch with the center to confirm that's the wrap? Spooky has stress issues, and I'm thinking about a Thundershirt, but would love to try something less bulky, and less expensive. :lol3:

No, but I will do that for you! I do think it is a lot lighter and easier. Make no mistake these are not very large, but they do stretch out. Somebody suggested I could go to big lots and get onesies as well. I have not looked at those. 

Friends of mine have said the thundershirt was a problem for their cat's neck. I do think the cat version of a thundershirt should be lighter weight and less bulky since it is not actually protecting them as much as it is hugging them and making them feel safe, yes?