What has happened to my cats neck??

Hi!

One of my fosters recently developed a lump under her neck.
I called the vet and she guessed that it was an abcess and said to wait a few days for it to burst or to bring her in for a check up. Unfortunately today is non -working day for us so i can't take her until tomorrow anyway.

The lump seems to have expanded to the other side of her neck so now she almost looks like she has mumps.

She doesn't seem to be in any obvious pain or discomfort and is eating though not as much as before.

In fact she seems in better spirits today than she was yesterday.

Is it an abcess? Or is it some sort of lymph node problem?

She is also on eye drops to clear up an eye problem that she has been having lately. It's not a URI. It's just some sort of bacterial infection. At first i thought that it was an allergic reaction to the drops... But the vet din't seem to think that was it.

I'm proably worrying for nothing but it's going to be a long day for me not knowing what exactly could be the matter.

Take the cat to an emergency clinic. Most cities have 24 hour clinics. I'd not wait longer. It does sound like lymph but one can't tell unless the cat is professionally treated.

I would do that if i thought it was an emergency situation but i've had lots of fosters and quite a few years of experience with cats to know that this is not really an emergency. I'm just wondering what other medical conditions could lead to a swelling under the neck like this other than an abcess.

If it is lymph nodes, enlargement to that degree would indicate a fairly significant problem. Unless you were grossly exaggerating I would see a veterinarian.
Of course there are any number of other things it could be from blocked salivary glands to growths within the neck tissue.

Vet.

I've just had another feel and it feels much too hard to be a swollen lymph nodes. My younger kitten has swollen lymph nodes on her neck because she is teething so i have a good comparison for knowing what the swollen ones feel like.... It's about an inch long where the jaw meets the neck...

My husband said that he thought it had gone done since yesterday.... and when i was feeling around just now, i realised that the other side is actually completely normal... it just seems to look swollen but there's no lump or anything.

I'm convinced it's gotten bigger so i will give the vet a call tomorrow and see what she says....
it's just so strange how it flared up so quick and yet i can't find a puncture wound to indicate that there was a cut or a nail wound from rough housing etc.

It's good that you are going to the vet - better safe than sorry.

Well it depends on what the vet says. She saw the same kitty a few days ago ... sometimes with the foster cats they are a little less hasty to tell us to come in because they know that the treatment costs come out of our own pockets - so they're pretty good with not telling us to come in unecessarily.

She is back to her normal self again today... i hope it's not tooth related.

And i suppose it came up too fast for it to be a cancerous lump.

Originally Posted by zazi

Well it depends on what the vet says. She saw the same kitty a few days ago ... sometimes with the foster cats they are a little less hasty to tell us to come in because they know that the treatment costs come out of our own pockets - so they're pretty good with not telling us to come in unecessarily.

She is back to her normal self again today... i hope it's not tooth related.

And i suppose it came up too fast for it to be a cancerous lump.

Click to expand...

I don't mean to scare you, because I doubt what your cat has is cancer, but some cancers DO come on very quickly. Our late cat Wuzzy developed cancer within 3 days and had to be put down. It was such a huge shock, but the vet said it does happen. Good luck with her, I hope it's nothing serious!

well everything turned out ok... (touchwood)
the lump was an abcess and has burst and kitty is back to normal.