My cat has a newly diagnosed tumor

Hello I'm new to the site! I have a 3 year old mixed medium hair brown tabby. My cat has been diagnosed with a mast cell tumor on his ear   - about the size of a small tick. The vet is now recommending amputation of his ear. I was a little bit shocked by that and apprehensive about such drastic measures. Have any of you had a cat with this type of tumor and what ended up happening treatment wise?

I'm so sorry your little guy got this diagnosis.  As with humans, sometimes a second opinion is good to get with this type of thing before surgery is actually done.  That's what I would recommend doing.  Perhaps with an feline oncologist, so then you can discuss chemo and whether it will be necessary, etc.?

Was the diagnosis made by biopsy?

When I first adopted my cat at age two, she had a lump at the corner of her ear where the ear meets the head. My vet took a scraping for biopsy. Thankfully, it was benign and when it was removed only a small amount of her ear was also removed in order to keep clean margins. Before we knew what it was, I did do some preliminary research into mast cell tumors. I do remember that mast cell tumors are graded just as human tumors. The grade then determines how much needs to be removed to get clean "margins". The higher the grade, the larger the margins needed. If you do not know this information, I would ask your vet prior to committing to any surgery. I also agree with mrsgreenjeens that a second opinion is always a good idea.

I wish you and your boy the best of luck [emoji]128522[/emoji]

Thanks for replying! So my vet actually consulted with an oncologist. The oncologist was the one who made the recommendation to amputate most of the ear. However, I have been reading about these tumors and most of my readings indicate they are typically benign in cats. I am all for removing it - although removing the entire ear makes me nervous. We are also planning to test his lymph nodes to make sure it hasn't spread. His blood work was otherwise normal. 

My vet only did a fine needle aspiration to determine that it is a mast cell tumor. We are -at this moment- planning to do a biopsy and remove the entire tumor. Once the pathologist examines it we should know a little bit more. However, my vet was suggesting with mast cell tumors the rating system is not as predictive of prognosis. I have been reading research articles which indicate that mitotic rate is the best indicator for prognosis. It seems there just isn't that much research available. 

luvjere said:

Thanks for replying! So my vet actually consulted with an oncologist. The oncologist was the one who made the recommendation to amputate most of the ear. However, I have been reading about these tumors and most of my readings indicate they are typically benign in cats. I am all for removing it - although removing the entire ear makes me nervous. We are also planning to test his lymph nodes to make sure it hasn't spread. His blood work was otherwise normal. 

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Good for you...do loads of research and don't be afraid to questions!! I know this from my own medical stuff. I used to do my research and then drag it all to my appointments with my questions. If nothing else, I felt good knowing that I understood why a certain treatment course was suggested.

I think your plan to remove and then biopsy is a great conservative plan and probably what I would do. Removing the entire ear without a definitive diagnosis and handle on what the lump is seems aggressive.

Can you upload a photo? I'm curious if it looks like what my Kitty had, which ended up being an overgrowth of ear skin cells.

I will try to take a picture tomorrow. The lighting right now in my apartment is not good. It is very small, the size of a small tick. The spot is flesh colored and hairless. With palpation it is firm and raised but the appearance is very even and not irregularly shaped.