Yesterday I thought I discovered a lump of some sort on my cat, Shadow, by his back leg. I tend to be overly paranoid about everything, if I took him into the vet every time I thought something was wrong I'd be paying thousands of dollars every year! The vet is closed today for some strange reason so I thought I'd ask here for today at least. If you look at my avatar here on the forum, the location of this bump is sorta in the middle of that big circle for the back leg. After looking at it further, it's on both sides of him actually, however they don't seem to be an exact mirror of each other either and it does bother him a little if I touch them, however it could just be that location as a whole he doesn't like. His behaviour, food/water intake, and litter box usage hasn't changed, if it did I'd be more concerned than I am.
Some information on Shadow:
- He's nearly 10 years old, got him when he was about 8 weeks old from some sorta farm however the mother, father, and litter were all kept indoors and were friendly so he wasn't runnin around outside really.
- He is 100% an indoor cat.
- I have no idea what you'd call his 'breed.' Common Household Cat? You tell me!
- He is neutered, and he got all his shots for his first year but hasn't gotten any since.
- He flushes the toilet. I'm not kidding, we have to keep the bathroom doors shut, otherwise the water bill would be insane.
- He is definitely overweight: he weighs 20 pounds.
--- We did try different diets recommended by vets for years, but he's just never been able to lose any weight. Part of what initially led to the problem may have been that we were freefeeding him for his first couple years or so, but we've had it worked down to just 1/2 cup of food a day for quite a while now (1/4 cup in the morning, 1/4 cup at night).
-- I think he gets a decent amount of water, however I do know that cats as a whole tend not to get all the water they need. His water bowl is upstairs while his food bowl and litter box is downstairs, and he spends most of his time upstairs, so it isn't a chore for him to get a drink and I have heard that cats prefer that their food and water dishes not be next to each other...
Vet history for him:
- As stated, all the usual stuff in his first year, shots and fixin.
- Had a couple scares where he was taken to the vet:
--- A few years ago he was throwing up quite a bit, and it's extremely rare for him to throw up at all, even hairballs haven't been a problem. He also wasn't eating, that's when we REALLY knew something was wrong! I don't remember what the outcome of this whole thing was, I faintly remember trying a different food and mixing some sort of goopy stuff in with it, bloodwork+urinalysis+etc came back OK and eventually he was his normal self again.
--- Last year he was kinda peeing on himself and the carpet etc. Got him into the vet immediately and I think the vet thought the most likely thing was diabetes and of course did a urinalysis, however it was something more minor (UTI maybe?) and he just needed antibiotics for a couple weeks. At this point due to Shadow not losing any weight on the various diets we'd tried the vet suggested something that would be more helpful to his urinary tract or something instead, and he hasn't gained any weight from that change.
Shadow did have a sister as well, Magic, but she passed away when she was just a few years old. We don't really know what happened to her, she just got very sick and we took her to the vet but it wasn't looking good from the get-go... they said her body temperature was down 10 degrees, and they thought it was a virus of some kind but whatever it was had already progressed pretty far. We decided not to put her through more pain by trying to do bloodwork, the vet agreed that was probably the best decision as by the time they would get the results back from it it would either be too late or she could maybe pull through it on her own. They did what they could to try and keep her warm and would watch her there like hawks, but she passed away peacefully in her sleep that night. It's still hard for me to talk about it, especially because I didn't really get to say goodbye to her. Magic and Shadow both hated their collars, and they were smart enough to take them off of each other so eventually we gave up on having them wear collars, so I still have Magic's collar and if I get it out I can tell Shadow still remembers her scent.
Some information on Shadow:
- He's nearly 10 years old, got him when he was about 8 weeks old from some sorta farm however the mother, father, and litter were all kept indoors and were friendly so he wasn't runnin around outside really.
- He is 100% an indoor cat.
- I have no idea what you'd call his 'breed.' Common Household Cat? You tell me!
- He is neutered, and he got all his shots for his first year but hasn't gotten any since.
- He flushes the toilet. I'm not kidding, we have to keep the bathroom doors shut, otherwise the water bill would be insane.
- He is definitely overweight: he weighs 20 pounds.
--- We did try different diets recommended by vets for years, but he's just never been able to lose any weight. Part of what initially led to the problem may have been that we were freefeeding him for his first couple years or so, but we've had it worked down to just 1/2 cup of food a day for quite a while now (1/4 cup in the morning, 1/4 cup at night).
-- I think he gets a decent amount of water, however I do know that cats as a whole tend not to get all the water they need. His water bowl is upstairs while his food bowl and litter box is downstairs, and he spends most of his time upstairs, so it isn't a chore for him to get a drink and I have heard that cats prefer that their food and water dishes not be next to each other...
Vet history for him:
- As stated, all the usual stuff in his first year, shots and fixin.
- Had a couple scares where he was taken to the vet:
--- A few years ago he was throwing up quite a bit, and it's extremely rare for him to throw up at all, even hairballs haven't been a problem. He also wasn't eating, that's when we REALLY knew something was wrong! I don't remember what the outcome of this whole thing was, I faintly remember trying a different food and mixing some sort of goopy stuff in with it, bloodwork+urinalysis+etc came back OK and eventually he was his normal self again.
--- Last year he was kinda peeing on himself and the carpet etc. Got him into the vet immediately and I think the vet thought the most likely thing was diabetes and of course did a urinalysis, however it was something more minor (UTI maybe?) and he just needed antibiotics for a couple weeks. At this point due to Shadow not losing any weight on the various diets we'd tried the vet suggested something that would be more helpful to his urinary tract or something instead, and he hasn't gained any weight from that change.
Shadow did have a sister as well, Magic, but she passed away when she was just a few years old. We don't really know what happened to her, she just got very sick and we took her to the vet but it wasn't looking good from the get-go... they said her body temperature was down 10 degrees, and they thought it was a virus of some kind but whatever it was had already progressed pretty far. We decided not to put her through more pain by trying to do bloodwork, the vet agreed that was probably the best decision as by the time they would get the results back from it it would either be too late or she could maybe pull through it on her own. They did what they could to try and keep her warm and would watch her there like hawks, but she passed away peacefully in her sleep that night. It's still hard for me to talk about it, especially because I didn't really get to say goodbye to her. Magic and Shadow both hated their collars, and they were smart enough to take them off of each other so eventually we gave up on having them wear collars, so I still have Magic's collar and if I get it out I can tell Shadow still remembers her scent.
