oral fibrosarcoma

Hello, just wondering if anybody here has gone through this... just got a diagnosis today for Marble (litter-mate to Mia in a prior thread- when it rains, it pours). The vet was very surprised as she thought it looked just like an inflammatory response, esp. given her history of asthma and IBD. The pathology lab classified it as grade 1- slow growing.

But it really just popped up in the past month. My husband and I looked at her teeth in Sept and saw she had bad gingivitis. So I booked an appt at the local vet for an exam/predental workup that was done at the end of Sept and they just said her teeth weren't terrible but did need to be done in the next 6 mo. I didn't feel comfortable with them doing her cleaning so kept looking around for other places. In the meantime, I attempted to brush her teeth at home which didn't go well (didn't hold still). After that I noticed one gum line (the side I brushed) was very inflamed so I booked her appt for the end of Oct at another vet an hour away. By the time she had her cleaning, the gum was so swollen it was covering most of her back molars on the right side, and (unbeknownst to me) was also on some of her palate. How can it grow that quickly and still be called "grade 1"?? Also I keep reading this is the same type of tumor associated with vaccines. She did get a round of vaccines (FVRCP + rabies) at the first vet appt in Sept...could there be any relation? I thought those were usually at the site of injection but some websites I've read lead me to believe otherwise. 

Prognosis is poor...I don't really want to put her through another surgery, chemo, or radiation, especially since the risk of reoccurance is high and only seems to extend their life a few months. I am hoping she makes it through the holidays. We go back to the vet who did her cleaning in a couple weeks to see how much has come back (she removed the best she could with a laser,but said it extended all the way to the bone) and get a better idea of time frame. 

What a tough time you're going through right now with your kitties.    I'm so sorry.  

So was this a different vet you went to for Marble's cleaning? (Not the same vet that opened up Mia and gave her a 8-inch incision assuming she had a blockage but didn't?)

I'll preface by saying I am not a vet. Are they sure it's not just some kind of infection that appears as though it is growing from the inflammation? Sebastian had some kind of swelling and bone overgrowth in his upper canine tooth, which just had to be extracted. No more issues. But to look at it, you would have though he had some kind of tumor forming.

GoHolistic said:

 
What a tough time you're going through right now with your kitties. 

  I'm so sorry.  

So was this a different vet you went to for Marble's cleaning? (Not the same vet that opened up Mia and gave her a 8-inch incision assuming she had a blockage but didn't?)

I'll preface by saying I am not a vet. Are they sure it's not just some kind of infection that appears as though it is growing from the inflammation? Sebastian had some kind of swelling and bone overgrowth in his upper canine tooth, which just had to be extracted. No more issues. But to look at it, you would have though he had some kind of tumor forming.

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It's just amazing that my two cats both break down at the same time. Bad genes I guess.

This is a different vet than the nightmare vet with Mia. The first vet I mentioned that I took her to for an exam and was uncomfortable with using them for dental services was in the same practice as that nightmare vet but a different person. Unfortunately, the vet who did the cleaning is an hour away in good traffic which further complicates things. I really liked her during her own exam. Very thorough. 

The vet said when she removed the gum tissue, that she felt it was likely just inflammatory changes and not cancer. A biopsy was sent anyway, and she removed the teeth in the affected area. She didn't give me a name for what she originally thought it was, but she had mentioned Marble might need a full mouth tooth extraction which leads me to think she thought it was stomatitis. She called me today with the results saying not that, but stage 1 fibrosarcoma. I also didn't really think it was cancer since it just came up after I attempted to brush her teeth. I thought I had just really irritated things by doing that, not that it was some tumor. It didn't look like a tumor but just irritated gum tissue. Part of me wonders if they mixed up the slides in the pathology lab because it doesn't makes sense to be a "slow growing" tumor but to come on that quickly, though I know that's just my denial speaking. 

Oh, okay. I didn't realize a biopsy was done and sent out. I suppose that is the most reliable test you could do.     Did this vet talk to you about options? I mean, if it was a tumor, its possible that chemo could help and put her into remission.      If you don't feel quite right about the diagnosis, especially since this seems to have come on so quickly, perhaps seek another opinion with another dentist and/or oncologist.

I do believe that diseases/cancers of the mouth are one of the most difficult since it directly affects their ability to eat.