I was petting Sparrow and scratching under her chin last night, and noticed that she has a lump alongside her throat, in the thyroid area. It's doesn't seem to be attached to her throat and moves slightly, but it's very hard. The nearest lymph node under her jaw is swollen today, but was not last night; it tends to swell up during the spring and fall when allergens are in the air and it was very windy this morning, so I suspect that's the reason for the lymph node and not the lump. I'm not sure how long it has been there, since it's under her collar and she doesn't care to be pet on her throat, but I pet and brush and check over my cats regularly so I don't think it could have been there prior to February or March.
I took her to the vet hoping it would be something she recognized (given that Sparrow's also lost a little weight, but is very active and eating and drinking as much or more than she always did, I was sort of thinking it was a goiter or something). But the vet says she doesn't know what it is, and she's not obviously hyperthyroid as she would expect in a cat with a goiter — no apparent weakness, her coat's a little dry but otherwise normal, she's not super skinny, and so on. She ran a full blood panel with T4 and chem 15 that I'm waiting on results of right now. But she said if that comes back clear, the next step is to wait and watch the lump for a few weeks and then if it grows or doesn't go away, to take her to a surgical specialist for a biopsy. She is reluctant to do a biopsy herself because of the location. She offered to do a fine needle aspiration, but said that it was likely to return a false negative and since she'd have to go under for either, it would be better just to do the normal biopsy.
I'm really just looking for anything else it might be to help me be less anxious. I'm freaking out right now and will be until the results come back/we get the biopsy done. She's only eight (or will be, in 24 days), and although she has asthma and IBD, both are very well controlled.
I took her to the vet hoping it would be something she recognized (given that Sparrow's also lost a little weight, but is very active and eating and drinking as much or more than she always did, I was sort of thinking it was a goiter or something). But the vet says she doesn't know what it is, and she's not obviously hyperthyroid as she would expect in a cat with a goiter — no apparent weakness, her coat's a little dry but otherwise normal, she's not super skinny, and so on. She ran a full blood panel with T4 and chem 15 that I'm waiting on results of right now. But she said if that comes back clear, the next step is to wait and watch the lump for a few weeks and then if it grows or doesn't go away, to take her to a surgical specialist for a biopsy. She is reluctant to do a biopsy herself because of the location. She offered to do a fine needle aspiration, but said that it was likely to return a false negative and since she'd have to go under for either, it would be better just to do the normal biopsy.
I'm really just looking for anything else it might be to help me be less anxious. I'm freaking out right now and will be until the results come back/we get the biopsy done. She's only eight (or will be, in 24 days), and although she has asthma and IBD, both are very well controlled.
