Prednisolone for possible pain from abdominal mass

Previously in November I posted a thread about my 11 year old cat Chalupa. She had an emergency surgery to correct a rupture in her intestines. They sent bad part off for tests and it came back as trauma or foreign object as the cause. Chalupa never really seemed to get back to normal after surgery, but she was definitely better than she was prior to surgery. She developed a cold and then had some congestion which I thought might have been related to having the heat running all winter. I thought maybe her sense of smell was effecting her appetite.

It's April and she's not improved so I brought her in to the doctor and they did an ultrasound and said she has an abdominal mass in her small intestine just before the colon. She gave me a few options, surgery to remove it, or fine needle aspirate to maybe find out what it is, or I believe the last option was to try some type of drug but I could be wrong because I was pretty shocked that this happened so fast.  I just couldn't imagine surgery again so soon, but I would do it, if I thought she had half a chance but I don't really know. She said it could be what she thought it was from the beginning, lymphoma or she said very unlikely f.i.p. I chose fine needle aspirate, probably the wrong choice but I couldn't really get any feedback from the dr what she thought was best to do. Could this also be a complication from the surgery? Don't doctors need to follow up after surgery to make sure everything is ok? Dr. didn't think I needed to bring her back unless she was really sick. I asked her right away shouldn't I just put her to sleep if this can happen so fast? She said absolutely not.  I might have 1 to 3 more days to get tests results back.

Chalupa is hardly eating, I'm giving her baby food and pedialyte, though the seems to make her stomach gurgle somehow. I gave her mirtazepine appetite stimulant 3 days ago it just made her pace around and meow on the first night, appetite has not changed. She will eat but in very small doses. She heaves a little sometimes maybe before or after bowel movement. She also vomited once right after bowel movement. I am afraid to force feed her because I don't want her to throw up because also after she eats she tends to have maybe what looks like acid reflux or maybe she almost throws up.  She sleeps a whole lot, she stretches, she purrs, she seems a little congested. She can still walk around, jump on tables, her coat is soft, she's grooming, but I still think she's lethargic. She's vomited maybe twice this month. No diarrhea, but twisted up rather large stools that seems to come out okay without too much strain, but I could be wrong.

 Could Chalupa be in pain? She's on no pain relief medicine, I have prednisolone at home I gave her one dose after her surgery and I still have several doses left. Might this help her a little? I'm not sure the dr will call me back today and want to make Chalupa feel a little better as soon as possible. If I want to get her some pain medication I think I have to bring her in to the doctor because they can only do injections there.

Would appreciate any feedback

It sounds like lymphoma.  The prednisolone will help because it will shrink the mass some.  Your kitty really needs to be under a vet's care whether you choose to try to get the lymphoma into remission or go with palliative care.  The prednisolone would be part of palliative care, surgery and stronger chemo drugs would be part of trying to get it into remission.

I am sorry to hear this about Chalupa. If it is lymphoma, prednisolone (a steroid) and leukeran are usually the first level of treatment. The vet should be able to tell you if surgery is an option, as and the likelihood of success.

In the meanwhile I would be looking for treatment to make her more comfortable and keep her eating. She sounds like she is nauseous, and I am a firm believer of addressing the nausea before adding appetite stimulants. Something like Cerenia may be very helpful to her. Since the mirtazapine was not effective, if you choose to try another appetite stimulant, I would try cyproheptadine instead. Most cats respond better to one or the other.

Pain relief for cats do not require an injection. A safe pain med for cats is buprenex/buprenorphine which is a liquid given orally and absorbed via the mouth lining. Do be very careful if the vet wants to give Metacam or any other type of NSAID.

Thank you for your reply, I'm guessing the doctor is going to tell me to give her the prednisolone, if this turns out to be something else other than lymphoma and a surgery is the only option, I hope prednisolone will not make anything worse.  I'm leaning towards not waiting for the dr to call back and just give it to her, I still have the syringe's with the correct dosage, just a little scared, don't want to make anything worse.

thank you for your reply, I don't think my veterinarian has the form of pain medicine that can be given orally, I have had this problem before and I had to bring her in for an injection, same for appetite stimulant they only seem to have one kind, but I will ask. My veterinarian seems to want to do the surgery, she offered me a lower cost but I am not so sure I want to put her through it again so soon, only to have it come right back. Maybe she thinks if we remove it we can then use drugs to keep it under control. Is that really possible? I thought once pets have something like this their best hope is less than a year anyway.

If it is lymphoma, then surgery and chemo drugs may extend life, but you are right that it may only be an extra 6 months. There is a cat here who went through chemo only for large cell lymphoma and is still in remission years later (knock on wood). The vet should be able to give you some type of prognosis. You can then discuss/decide what is best for Chalupa and her situation.

Your vet should be able to order other kinds of meds. Just because it is not the one they are familiar with is no reason to not offer it if requested. They can easily research the drugs and its uses.

Thank you for your time, I really appreciate it, I will hopefully be able to talk with my vet soon and I hope the test results come back with more information than last time.