My cat is 14 years old, and has been a normal cat all thoughout her life, she is loving. But she started to get a tumor on the side of her neck, that started out small and got larger and larger, and now it is huge, we took her to the vets and they said that it s not cancerous, but apparently we could take her to a place which is 2 hours away to get it surgically removed, the vet also said that this would be a 50/50 change or we living, we decided to leave it as she is quite happy and loving at the moment. But after a few years or so of having the tumor we put her into the Catary as we was on holiday, came back and she had changed, she is sleeping a lot, and as soon as she has had something to eat she will go straight back to bed, her right leg (the Tumor is on the right side of her leg) seems to not be normal like when putting her onto the floor her leg would slide, she is also limping, I don't know what to do at this stage and wether we should have gone ahead with the treatment
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Cat Tumor
- Thread starter bamitscon
- Start Date
if i'm understanding correctly, the surgery to remove the non-cancerous tumor that your vet had given as an option came with a 50/50 chance of your girl surviving and/or recovering. at 14 years old, she was already well into her senior years and as such there can be an increased risk for surgery as well as being put under/anesthesia. so i would say that if she were my cat, i would have carefully considered whether i felt there was too much risk going ahead with that surgery. in fact, my snick (who was about 12 years old then and had/has serious medical issues) needed to have at least one tooth extracted several years ago, and the vet and i agreed that the risks were far too great to go ahead with that procedure with my girl.
it's very common for us to second guess ourselves looking back, wondering if we made the right choices or if we could have done something differently. but your girl has had three years of doing well which she's enjoyed with you. and the decisions you made were made with love for her and with her best interests in mind.
i'd suggest that the first thing to do would be to have your vet take a look at your girl. it's possible that the tumor has caused this limping, but it's also possible that your girl's sleeping a lot and limping could be related to something from the cattery. i think that with many cats together in a cattery, there might be a risk of something like a virus being passed from one cat to others for example. there may possibly have been something that your girl was doing/did while there at the cattery that caused an injury to her arm, as another example. only a vet will be able to give a diagnosis.
it's very common for us to second guess ourselves looking back, wondering if we made the right choices or if we could have done something differently. but your girl has had three years of doing well which she's enjoyed with you. and the decisions you made were made with love for her and with her best interests in mind.
i'd suggest that the first thing to do would be to have your vet take a look at your girl. it's possible that the tumor has caused this limping, but it's also possible that your girl's sleeping a lot and limping could be related to something from the cattery. i think that with many cats together in a cattery, there might be a risk of something like a virus being passed from one cat to others for example. there may possibly have been something that your girl was doing/did while there at the cattery that caused an injury to her arm, as another example. only a vet will be able to give a diagnosis.
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- #3
Yes I understand, we did take her to the vets a couple of days ago, for a blood test but the bet told us to starve her from breakfast then bring her in, but the vet we had said they told us wrong and should have starved her the night before, so the blood test couldn't go ahead, we said about the limping and he just thought it was a cause of the Tumor making it heavy for her and didn't do much, and also said that he had a cat which is 18 and all it wants to do is sleep. Although I do want to get her back down to check if the leg is related to something else that might have happened in the cattery such as hurting her leg, I don't know. But she has been fussy with her food and doesn't really eat much anymore and when she does we have to stand there and watch for her to actually eat
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- #4
I don't know whether it tells you that I have replied so I quoted you
i'd say that it would be ideal to have the blood work run. this might help rule out possible medical issues, or might help your vet pinpoint a cause for one or both of her symptoms -- or both. i'm glad the vet didn't run the tests without the proper fasting time though.
your girl being 'fussy' about her food and that she likes you to stand there with her while she eats, is this something new for her or just started recently? my snick (who is 15 years old now) seems to need me nearby or standing with her while she eats many times now. otherwise, snick will sometimes be hungry but doesn't seem to notice or realize that i've put food in her dish for her and will vocalize. in our case, snick is on at-home/hospice care. when i discussed this with our vet recently, we were unable to pin down the reason but it's possible that snick's CKD could have progressed further or it could be that my girl is slowly losing some of her mental acuity. i think it's quite possible that your girl could be experiencing some discomfort or be slowly losing some of her mental acuity.
something that i keep an eye on with my snick is her quality of life from day to day. of course, i work with our vet and treat medical issues that do come up with my girl. but i know that when my snick is having more 'bad' days than 'good' days or is experiencing others on the list of symptoms our vet has told me to watch for, then the time is nearing that i'll need to consider helping my girl to cross the rainbow bridge...giving my girl 'the final kindness'.
your girl being 'fussy' about her food and that she likes you to stand there with her while she eats, is this something new for her or just started recently? my snick (who is 15 years old now) seems to need me nearby or standing with her while she eats many times now. otherwise, snick will sometimes be hungry but doesn't seem to notice or realize that i've put food in her dish for her and will vocalize. in our case, snick is on at-home/hospice care. when i discussed this with our vet recently, we were unable to pin down the reason but it's possible that snick's CKD could have progressed further or it could be that my girl is slowly losing some of her mental acuity. i think it's quite possible that your girl could be experiencing some discomfort or be slowly losing some of her mental acuity.
something that i keep an eye on with my snick is her quality of life from day to day. of course, i work with our vet and treat medical issues that do come up with my girl. but i know that when my snick is having more 'bad' days than 'good' days or is experiencing others on the list of symptoms our vet has told me to watch for, then the time is nearing that i'll need to consider helping my girl to cross the rainbow bridge...giving my girl 'the final kindness'.
members get notified if you quote them -- though i think it depends on the settings they selected for notifications.
i do check back often while i'm online, on the threads in which i've replied.
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- #7
Yes it's been happening for quite a while about the whole standing with her so that she will eat and when she's eating she will stop and look up just to see if I am still there or something
yes, that's what my snick has been doing too. i think it's simply comforting/reassuring to know that we're close by, there with them while they're eating.
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- #9
Sometimes I put one lot of food down, and she just turns her nose up at it, and then I open a different packet and put it down and she eats it? Like I don't get it.
my snick has always been a picky eater, and in her senior years this has continued. also though, senior cats can have a decreased sense of taste and smell, which can cause them to become more picky or seem to lose appetite. so it may be that your girl isn't able to smell some cat foods as well as others. i tend to go with whichever canned cat food snick wants to eat. we do also have jaspurr, who is just turned 3 years old and will gladly eat the canned cat food that snick doesn't want. i also give snick a wide variety of wet cat food, different brands and flavors. i've found that for my girl this helps her eat better, and she eats enthusiastically the new brands/flavors i buy. note that it's generally fine to rotate wet/canned cat foods (as long as kitty is not on prescription diet/food, or has IBD), but dry cat food needs to be gradually transitioned from one brand to another -- or it's likely the cat would experience gastro upset (ie, vomiting, diarrhea, and/or gas).
some cats foods are stronger smelling than others. and microwaving the serving (just for 2-3 seconds, not to let it get hot -- so check to make sure it doesn't feel hot) of wet cat food just before giving to kitty can help entice some cats to eat it or eat more of it.
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- #11
Today I got home and my cat always welcomes me and gets out of bed the second she hears the door go, and she would follow me into the kitchen, and sit there behind me while I get her food purring away, like the neighbours would probably hear it because it's that loud, I would put it down and she wouldn't eat it, so I put some different food down different brand and she eat almost all of it, but the thing is if a cat doesn't want to eat then she wouldn't be purring her head off wanting food right?
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- #12
Also now that I think of it she was sleeping in her basket in the hallway and I acedently stood on her basket which made her jump and she jumped out, what if I acedebtly stood ok her leg? I can't remember if she was limping before this or not, fgs what do I do now?
if you had accidentally stood on your girl's leg (or any part of her), she would have clearly let you know! she would have loudly cried out or even hissed as well as crying out loudly. in either event, your vet should be able to check for an injury to your girl's leg(s).
i did want to ask -- does your girl's front leg (the leg with the tumor near the shoulder) look like the (human equivalent of the) wrist has 'fallen'? one of my snick's wrists has fallen, so when she walks she does look like she's limping, and it looks like snick has a very long paw -- but it's really that her wrist has fallen. our vet told me that she's seen this in older cats, and that it can happen simply from a lifetime of jumping (down) from things. i'm wondering if this might be what your girl has, if this might be what's making her look like she's limping. of course, it's still important to have a vet check any suspected injury.
if your girl (and for most cats) is following you to where you prepare her meals or to near her food dish, that usually means kitty is wanting some food. many people don't know that cats purr not only when they're happy or hungry. cats can purr when they're scared or hurt/in pain too. it's comforting to them to purr.
another way to look at it is to put ourselves in our cats 'shoes'. sometimes we just don't want the fish or the meatloaf that we already have made, but would much rather have a nice pizza or such instead. cats have preferences as to what they feel like eating for particular meals too.
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- #14
Yeah but she always seems to purr when she is waiting for her food, but what I said about the acedently standing on her basket, we are going to get her down to the vets Monday and see what they see about her leg, because her other leg is straight and the one on the right which she is limping on is sticking out more than usual, she isn't putting it straight?
i think that's a good idea, to have your vet check your girl's leg. i know that for my two cats, i much prefer to have things checked by the vet. in fact, i just a few months ago took our jaspurr in to see our vet to have his teeth looked at. his breath was/is not particularly nice smelling, and i wanted to make sure his teeth and gums were fine. i knew that if there was going to be dental work or a dental cleaning needed, that i would need to save the money for that. it turned out that jaspurr's teeth and gums look very good, but a very small amount of tartar was seen on some of his back teeth so we're working up to teeth brushing with jaspurr now.
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- #16
I don't know what you mean about the leg thing, the other leg is straight when she stands where as the other leg which she is limping with her elbow is bent instead of straight? The only problem is my cat doesn't like going in her basket thing to go to the vets so it's always trouble getting her in there, and I always feel horrible and think that she might get hurt when trying to force her in
do you have a cat carrier (basket) that the top can be unhooked and taken off? if so, it might be easier to simply take the top of the carrier off, set your girl in the carrier, and then lower the top over the carrier and hook it closed again. for some cats, this is much less stressful and upsetting than going into a carrier head first.
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- #18
No, I don't know how to get the basket where it opens on the top, where can I go to get that? Also her leg is sticking out more, the other one she stands with it straight and the other one her elbow is bent more and her leg is out more than it is straight?
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- #19
Maybe my cat has ruptured cruciate ligament? I was reading about it and it said something about there car was holding its leg up into the air when laying down, and this is exactly what my cat is doing, read up about it?
looking into ruptured cruciate ligament, it does sound like this is a distinct possibility. i would discuss this possibility with your vet. now with a ruptured cruciate ligament, your girl could be in discomfort or even be in pain. a ruptured cruciate ligament is quite serious. even though she probably won't enjoy being helped into her carrier/basket and taking a ride to the vet's, it would be the best thing to do for her now. if left untreated, a ruptured cruciate ligament can lead to permanent joint 'complications' (issues, problems).
