Ear polyp may have turned into cancer

[profcat]

Our kooky calico cat, Maggie, was a stray 7 years ago when jumped into our car when we were doing some TNR trapping in her neighborhood and came home with us. She's such a sweetie and so happy to have a home with us. For 5 or so years she's dealt with recurring ear polyps and infections. That sounds awful like we've been neglecting her, but there were long spaces of time where we'd have the polyp removed, give her some steroids and antibiotics, and she'd be fine for 10-12 months. This past year they got progressively worse and would come back just weeks after removal. We were seeing another vet (not our usual vet) who specializes in removing them. He was 100% sure from the beginning she was dealing with polyps and told us they were the kind that's likely to come back (more inflammatory, not the type with stalks). This past summer we decided to get her the bulla osteotomy surgery and the vet said he would do it. I dropped her off for the surgery. Much to my surprise, I went to pick her up and met with him and he had decided ON HIS OWN not to do the surgery but just remove what he could again-- said he thought she was too old for the surgery (she's 9 and otherwise healthy). I was furious that he never called to check with me about the decision, and since I wasn't thrilled with the office and staff anyways, I decided not to go back.

There is a new vet working with our regular vet and he has some expertise in polyps so he said he'd take a look. He looked at her ears in September and saw polyps and said he could definitely do the bulla osteotomy surgery. We scheduled it for right after Thanksgiving. We brought her in, thrilled to have this problem finally fixed. Then the vet called and said the polyps had spread so much over the past 2 months that he is sure it is cancer. We opted for a biopsy instead of the full procedure. We should have the results early this week.

Has anyone had a cat with chronic polyps end up with cancer? From what I can read online, polyps are polyps. They come back often and don't just turn into cancer. I'm so peeved at the other vet for not removing the polyps when he could have this summer!

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi
Hopefully the biopsy shows that it isn't cancer and she can finally have the procedure

 

[FeebysOwner]

I, too, hope the biopsy results show no cancer.

But you need to have this new vet thoroughly discuss what polyps are and how they manifest themselves. I have always understood they do contain 'stalks' and, if not hereditary in nature, they usually are the reaction to/result of some sort of inflammation, bacterial, fungal, or otherwise. What normally happens is that the polyps are removed, but not the stalk which is what enables the 'polyps' to regrow.

Please keep us posted.

 

[profcat]

Good news! It was not benign, but it is not the kind of aggressive cancer that spreads quickly. So the vet believes he can remove it with little chance of recurrence! We're thrilled. She's going in for surgery tomorrow. It's going to cost an arm and a leg but she's worth it!

One of our other cats had the kind of polyp with a stalk removed years ago and never came back. Maggie's polyps were always flatter and more inflammatory, and not as easy to remove. Who knows if it was cancer back then or not, but I'm so glad it can be removed now!

 

[Furballsmom]

Oh my gosh, I'm so glad to hear that this will finally be moving forward for you-all!!

 

[FeebysOwner]

Best of luck to Maggie and that surgery is successful and smooth sailing!