Feline Vaccine Sarcoma in my young cat

Hi everyone!  I found this site while researching sarcomas.  I am a new cat owner and adopted three litter mates.  They are a year and a half old.  A few weeks ago I took them in for their 3 year rabies shot.  One of the boys, Leo developed a small pea sized bump on his hind leg about three weeks after the shot.  I took him to the vet today and he said it is most likely a tumor that formed at the injection site on his hind leg.  He aspirated some material from it and sent it out to a lab, but he said that he saw a few "spindle cells" under the microscope and he told me the best course of treatment is to amputate his leg..... I immediately burst into tears....  I was not expecting that... 

All night I have been researching on the internet and have read about the high return rate of these types of tumors and the difficulty in removing them.  Ugh... He is barely out of his kitten stage.  I am completely sick over this.

Does anyone have any experience with this in cats that are this young?

Sharon

Welcome to the cat site, and sorry for the news, how shocking to hear about such a young kitty

The amputation is very dramatic, that's for sure.

However, there is a very good reason for the dramatic removal of his leg and the idea is, there is such a high rate of spreading that losing his leg is so much smaller than losing him......

Once you are over the initial shock, I SURE would be the same way, just devastated, then think on this wisely.

I would get a second opinion,. as I have certainly found that vets vary a GREAT deal.

This isn't to say that the next one won't tell you the same thing, but it will also help you in accepting what needs to be done.

If that's the case, I hope you understand how well cats adjust and how quickly too to losing a limb.

Vets vary like doctors do.

What a perfect example I have for you.

Oh it's been about 14 years ago now but I remember it like yesterday, a very stressful time.

My daughter came down with a very rare health issue called Achalasia. It's when her esophagus stops working properly to put it mildly. It wouldn't push food down her throat to her stomach.

She was 18.

Saw a Kaiser dr.

I left sobbing, I could not believe what he said we had to do.

He would have to open her up from her upper chest, down under her left breast and around under her arm to the center of her back, break 3 ribs so he could get his hands on her esophagus and cut the muscle so food would drop down via gravity. Said she would take at least 3 months to recover. OMG...

I was SO not okay and made another appt but with a new doctor, still with Kaiser.

This one said he can do it laparoscopically !! A day in the hospital and home.

So needless to say, a second opinion can never hurt.