Lump on chin - diagnosed wih cancer (follow-up)

[trishia42]

I posted a week or so ago about my cat excessively licking his lips, then him having his jaw slightly askew and then a hard lump just popping out on his chin. Literally this lump was not there at all on the Saturday and then bam - it was there on the Monday.

The vet assessed it and was able to feel a ~4 cm mass which she is pretty certain is cancer. She only gave him 2-4 weeks to live.

If anyone has gone through this before, please tell me about potential biopsies and risks (we were told she worried the jaw bone might be too compromised to do a biopsy)? How did it all go down and progress? Did you try anything?

We are not thinking surgery since the prognosis is very poop and our cat is 16, has kidney disease and mild heart disease so we don't feel that would be fair at all. We are looking into keeping him around as long as we can as long as he is not suffering. He is currently on antibiotics and pain killers; definitely eats a bit less but we're not sure if that's because of the mass, the CKD, or the antibiotics making him feel ill. We are going to add Cerenia to the mix to see if it helps.

The general thought I get from other communities is that their cat was acting normal until the end and that they ended up helping them cross because the mass became too much and they wouldn't eat.

I'm not sure what I'm looking for really; I am just so very absolutely devastated.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hello
I don't have any experience with this. I'm so very sorry for you and for her

 

[Morpheus1967]

Honestly, it's like you are talking about my cat, Maggie. She was diagnosed with the same thing, a massive tumor on her jaw. We were told that even if the tumor was treated successfully (a long shot), she would most likely lose a large part of her lower jaw bone, and her quality of life would have suffered quite a bit. She was 16 at the time as well. Upon the advice of two separate vets, we made the hard decision.

I am so incredibly sorry for you having to go through this. We were absolutely gut punched when we got Maggie's diagnosis, as we had just lost Mozart less than 4 months earlier. They were lifelong companions, and losing (2) 16 year old cats inside of 4 months was devastating, but we 100% know in our hearts we made the right decision.

May you find peace, whatever your decision is.

 

[fionasmom]

I am so sorry that you are facing this. Remember that you need to do what you feel is right for your cat, and yourself and we can only give our opinions or experiences.

I am assuming that the prognosis of 4 weeks is a hard line? Or was there a condition that if treatment were attempted it might be longer?

IMO, even at that, I would not put an older and ill cat through anything but palliative care. Several years ago I had a somewhat younger cat who presented with oral squamous cell carcinoma. We did a biopsy, somewhat inconclusive, so the vet did a second biopsy. At that, the quality of life declined so much that I never brought the cat home. I currently have a healthy (for her age) 15 year old with a mass on her upper gum. It is probably a bone cyst, not great news, but not cancerous; however, we don't know this for a fact. My vet told me that doing the biopsy should be dependent on whether or not I would proceed with radiation and chemo, or surgery, which I would not, so at this point I am watching and there is clearly no pain or even annoyance. However, some people like to know what is there, which would then suggest a biopsy.

Having said all this, we have member on TCS who have proceeded with surgery and treatment for oral cancers with their cats.

It sounds like the biopsy would need to take a piece of bone? If you want to proceed, ask for all the details regarding management and recovery from it. I don't know if an FNA of a lymph node applies to your situation or not. In some oral cancers, that is done to see if there is spreading.

 

[trishia42]

Thank you for the responses.

Morpheus - did the mass appear very rapidly in your case? I am still so confused that one day, his chin was perfectly flat for sure and then two days later there was this massive bump on it. Of course, I guess it could have been growing for a while, but that does seem odd to me. I am very, very sorry for your loss by the way. It is so very difficult.

Yes, the treatment options may extend life a little but at what cost? The prognosis I find in the literature even with treatment is 2-4 months; it seems way too unfair to put a cat through so much for so little especially given recovery and everything.

Thank you for the input fionasmom - this is our worry with a potential biopsy; we do not want to make things worse or the time we may have left even shorter. Our main concern I guess is "making sure" and all the what about ifs - like what if it is a missed dental problem or a bone infection? I guess if it was those things though, the antibiotics would at least have an effect and then we could investigate more.

I lost my other cat April more or less unexpectedly back in February this year and Mao got seriously ill in May and was hoopitalized twice. It seems so unlikely statistically that a cat with kidney disease, mild heart disease, pancreatitis then fluid overload event would not develop a cancerous tumour. It is certainly very difficult to understand and it's absolutely tearing my heart apart. The very grim and short prognosis is certainly not helping.

 

[Morpheus1967]

Trishia42, it was very, very quick. We knew something was wrong, and had a vet appt scheduled for it. Increased grooming around the jaw area, some drooling while sleeping. I thought it was a bad tooth. Did not feel any sort of tumor at all. Literally 3 days later, you could tell it was driving her nuts (her appointment was still two days away.) That was the first time my wife felt anything really wrong. You could feel the tumor at that point.

Brought her in right away, and the diagnosis was made.

Less than a month elapsed.

If I thought for even a second Maggie would have been comfortable I would have spared no expense. But the surgery, possibly losing most of her lower jaw, referrals to an oncologist, to give her at best a month or two more, just could not be justified. She was an indoor cat who was spoiled completely rotten for 16 years. I just couldn't let her last few months be absolutely miserable for her. But I 100% understand your trepidation. It's a decision a lot of us will have to make as pet owners. And when you know what the grief will feel like, it makes it even harder.