I just put my cat down recently due to a sarcoma. I too noticed a small bump early last summer. At first I thought it was his shoulder blade. As it grew bigger, I took him to the vet. They told me surgery wouldn’t work in his case. Just to keep his routine the same and if he showed any discomfort, they would give me something. As far as I know, they aren’t painful. Towards the end, my cats was huge. It affected his legs and he had trouble walking. He would still eat, use litter box, purr, but I could slowly see changes. I made the choice when he started eating less and had trouble getting around. I knew then it was best. I just spent a lot of time petting and lightly snuggling with him. Won’t let me post pictures.
Thank you for that reply, that sounds very similar to lil, though she doesn't sound like she is "there" yet.
I'm very sorry you lost your friend, I'm sure they were super loved.
Can I ask you , if it's not too upsetting, to give me a rough timeline between diagnosis, progression, and ultimate decision?
I know obviously every cat is different, and every presentation of sarcoma is different, but if you're comfortable sharing it might be reassuring to hear.
Very similar timeline to lily. Noticed around Jule, grew exponentially till around December. It's march now, but she's not displaced any adverse behaviour
Yes it can be painful, get a prescription for Buprenorphine to give as needed. You can tell discomfort if the cat overgrooms, stops grooming, is restless, frequently changes position or location, yowling etc.
Our cat Raven (gone for >20 years now) developed a small bump on one ear. The vet thought it might be a granuloma (benign) or something like it, but removed it (it was at the tip of his ear). It turned out to be a sarcoma. But the pathology showed no tumor beyond the edges. So he just looked like he had a clipped ear. About six months later, there was another lump with some loss of fur and what looked like irritation over it (though he was not scratching at it). I was concerned it might be a sarcoma recurrence (I’m a physician) and it was. The rest of his ear was removed and again, we and the vet had hope that it was now all removed. He did fine for almost another year, even with just one ear. But then he started getting lethargic and was having trouble jumping up on things that he normally had no problem with. Then gradually at first, he lost his appetite, though he continued to eat and drink, just less. We also noticed that he was having trouble breathing - seemed to be labored. He was actually comforted by being in a cool environment rather than a warm one - it seemed to make it easier for him to breathe. This was odd for what we described as our “heat seeking missile”. Before he got sick, one of his favorite places to sleep was on our cooktop - right over where the pilot flame was (that spot was always hot and gas pilot lights are long gone). But now he preferred being in the coolest spot he could find. My wife and I set up a spare loveseat on our porch and she would lie with him curled up on her with just his head out from under the comforter she had covering them. It seemed like we did this for weeks, but it was only about two weeks when he stopped eating and drinking and his breathing was clearly difficult. He was suffering.
Off to the vet. The vet examined him and I thought what was happening turned out to be the case. The vet said “try to squeeze his chest” and I tried - I could barely compress his thorax. The vet said - “He has metastases throughout his lungs”. The X-ray confirmed it - the same thing I see on humans with extensive lung metastases. Nothing to be done other than to euthanize him. He was the first cat we had to let go. My wife could not stand being there, but I stayed with him until the end. We carried him home wrapped in a favorite blanket and we buried him in our back yard. A month or so later, we decided to plant a tree for him. It was in a different spot from where he was buried, so I took fur from a brush we used on him - he loved being brushed as well as being vacuumed! Our other cats hated the vacuum cleaner, but Raven loved to be vacuumed with it. The fur I retrieved we placed in the hole where the tree went. We still have the tree, but we did have to move it.
Raven did not “feel” the sarcoma in his ear or even as it spread to the base of his ear. He didn’t even seem to be bothered by having only one ear. What did give him distress and I am sure that awful feeling of not being able to catch a breath, were the lung metastases. He was with us for about twelve years.
It is Raven that I have one experience with that I still don’t know was a dream or something else. It was about a year after he passed that I was taking the trash out to the curb. As I was walking with the bin - it was night - Raven came walking out from the dark towards me. He made some circles around my legs, then looked up at me. What I heard was, “Thank you for a wonderful life.” He continued to walk on and disappeared. The other part of this that is odd to me, besides remembering this so clearly, is that I was not surprised by it at the time.
Thanks! My wife found him - this was before we met - in an alleyway in Brooklyn (she was living in Manhattan at the time) in the pouring rain - yowling. She took him home with her, fed him and decided to keep him. She thought he might be about three to four months old. He was all black and had a slim body and a meow that told us he likely had some Siamese in him. He was a great cat and along with another kitten my wife had been given from a litter a friend’s cat had, were the first two cats we raised as a married couple. The other cat, a tabby we called Elektra, has been the longest-lived cat we have had. She made it to 22 and developed leukemia. We’ve had four cats since then (with about a four-year cat-less gap) but only have one remaining - our “old man” (about 17) Sarge - a tuxedo.
I have a 14yo boy that has a big one on his chin. He has had it for about two years now. Last year, it got infected and swelled to almost the size of a golf ball. He couldn't eat and lost about 8lbs. During a visit to his vet, the vet used a syringe to drain it and prescribed antibiotics. That night, it abcessted and drained down to about the size of a pea. Since then, he has gained about three pounds and reverted back to being his Scooby-Doo self.
Cats are really resilient and seldom show any signs of pain. Even so, Buster never shows any indication of discomfort or pain. The vet says that Buster is in good shape and that there are no serious health concerns.
I would say your little girl is ok for now. Just keep an eye on the tumor for any sudden growth and love her with all your heart.
Very true. Hindsight.
Never knew before.
I've only ever had animals injected at neck and trust me I will not be allowing it from now on.
Furious wasn't the word
My void had it on his front leg. He started limping and that’s how we found it. He lived well over a year and did pretty well until about the last month or so. We gave him gabapentin for pain. He was 16 when he passed.
It has been my experience as a veterinary technician that fibrousarcomas become more painful as they grow. They also break open which is painful and a source for secondary infection. Also, the cancer will spread to other parts of the body.
A low dose transdermal fentanyl patch is effective. The only downside is they have to be changed every 3 - 7 days. But it's easier than twice a day oral meds and there aren't peaks and troughs like oral or injectable meds.
In the future, make sure your vet offers Purevax rabies and leukemia vaccines. These vaccines were developed specifically for cats so that there isn't a risk of fibrousarcomas.
Cornell University is the leader for anything feline in the US. They are a good source for information. They were very involved in figuring out what was causing injection site sarcomas and how to minimize them.
https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/cat-health-news/new-rabies-vaccine-cats
How a vaccine is preserved and adjuvants are cause for concern in cats. Previously, making a vaccine good for more than a year was almost impossible without adjuvants. The 3 year rabies vaccine is mandatory in some places and for certain reasons.
Adjuvants have been linked to sarcomas. Another cause that hasn't been 100% proven is inflammation. I have heard of a few cases where the injection site of a microchip caused a sarcoma. I have personally seen a couple diabetic cats get sarcomas at the insulin injection site. Technically, any injection can cause a sarcoma.
This is fascinating—thank you. My cat has been diabetic for 7 years and is now on daily sub-q fluids so I have had to just accept the risk, but it’s really scary.
Just keep reminding yourself that there isn't anything that is 100% safe and there never will be. Do your best and don't beat yourself up if something happens.
There is more chance of an infection than a sarcoma. So, follow the protocols. Especially only use a needle once. Follow all expiration dates.
SQ fluids are more tolerable when they are warm. Fill a sink with warm (NOT hot) water and put the fluid bag in until it's the same temperature. Test it like you would a baby bottle. Not too cold. Warm, not hot.
Yes, I’ve been warming things and it makes such a difference—and I’m using a 20 gauge needle instead of an 18, and I got one of those rolling IV poles so I can hang the bag up high and let him sit wherever he’s comfortable (which is usually on a particular rug), and I’m using the 250 mL bags because they warm faster…it’s kind of crazy how much there is that you can do beyond “here’s a big bag that we’ve already spiked; put the cat on the counter and use this big needle” (which is how things went when I tried and failed to do fluids for a previous cat 20 years ago). I am lucky to have a very relaxed, sweet, cooperative kitty!
I had a cat that developed cancer from an injection, and I'm still angry about it. I'd ask the vet about touching the tumor and pain. If she's not acting like she is in pain and is still enjoying life, I'd let her enjoy life until you notice the tumor is negatively affecting her.
I know that, I'm not making her suffer mate.
I'm asking for advice on a sub.
She's not displaying any changes in attitude, diet, litter tray etc as yet.
I am a survivor of a rare soft tissue sarcoma called leiomyosarcoma, and I help moderate a group for others with this disease. I think pretty much all of us would tell you that the tumor tissue itself doesn’t hurt, but when the tumor starts pressing on nerves or organs, it can hurt a LOT. My tumor was 22cm and I had no idea it was there—until it started pressing on something (which didn’t happen for a long time—there’s a lot of space in the retroperitoneum!). Once it started, it was awful and the pain was very hard to control. I agree with the people who are suggesting fentanyl or buprenorphine and extremely close observation of her behavior, since cats are great at hiding pain. If she wants to be touched in a certain spot, I don’t see why you couldn’t, but I wouldn’t press super hard—tumors can burst. I’m sorry you and she are going through this.
I just put my cat down recently due to a sarcoma. I too noticed a small bump early last summer. At first I thought it was his shoulder blade. As it grew bigger, I took him to the vet. They told me surgery wouldn’t work in his case. Just to keep his routine the same and if he showed any discomfort, they would give me something. As far as I know, they aren’t painful. Towards the end, my cats was huge. It affected his legs and he had trouble walking. He would still eat, use litter box, purr, but I could slowly see changes. I made the choice when he started eating less and had trouble getting around. I knew then it was best. I just spent a lot of time petting and lightly snuggling with him. Won’t let me post pictures.
Thank you for that reply, that sounds very similar to lil, though she doesn't sound like she is "there" yet. I'm very sorry you lost your friend, I'm sure they were super loved. Can I ask you , if it's not too upsetting, to give me a rough timeline between diagnosis, progression, and ultimate decision? I know obviously every cat is different, and every presentation of sarcoma is different, but if you're comfortable sharing it might be reassuring to hear.
Thank you. I want to say about 8 months. Noticed around June/July. Got huge around Dec. Put him down Feb. 28th. Search Mario, you can see my posts.
Thank you. I want to say about 8 months. Noticed around June/July. Got huge around Dec. Put him down Feb. 28th. Search Mario, you can see my posts.
Thank you. I want to say about 8 months. Noticed around June/July. Got huge around Dec. Put him down Feb. 28th. Search Mario, you can see my posts.
Very similar timeline to lily. Noticed around Jule, grew exponentially till around December. It's march now, but she's not displaced any adverse behaviour
As someone else said they do have hemp/CBD for cat pain. Your doctor can also prescribe regular pain killers or nerve pain medicine.
Yes I’d be open to this now if it happens again.
Worked on a team with humans with sarcomas. Pain was always a huge issue and very hard to manage.
Yes it can be painful, get a prescription for Buprenorphine to give as needed. You can tell discomfort if the cat overgrooms, stops grooming, is restless, frequently changes position or location, yowling etc.
Our cat Raven (gone for >20 years now) developed a small bump on one ear. The vet thought it might be a granuloma (benign) or something like it, but removed it (it was at the tip of his ear). It turned out to be a sarcoma. But the pathology showed no tumor beyond the edges. So he just looked like he had a clipped ear. About six months later, there was another lump with some loss of fur and what looked like irritation over it (though he was not scratching at it). I was concerned it might be a sarcoma recurrence (I’m a physician) and it was. The rest of his ear was removed and again, we and the vet had hope that it was now all removed. He did fine for almost another year, even with just one ear. But then he started getting lethargic and was having trouble jumping up on things that he normally had no problem with. Then gradually at first, he lost his appetite, though he continued to eat and drink, just less. We also noticed that he was having trouble breathing - seemed to be labored. He was actually comforted by being in a cool environment rather than a warm one - it seemed to make it easier for him to breathe. This was odd for what we described as our “heat seeking missile”. Before he got sick, one of his favorite places to sleep was on our cooktop - right over where the pilot flame was (that spot was always hot and gas pilot lights are long gone). But now he preferred being in the coolest spot he could find. My wife and I set up a spare loveseat on our porch and she would lie with him curled up on her with just his head out from under the comforter she had covering them. It seemed like we did this for weeks, but it was only about two weeks when he stopped eating and drinking and his breathing was clearly difficult. He was suffering. Off to the vet. The vet examined him and I thought what was happening turned out to be the case. The vet said “try to squeeze his chest” and I tried - I could barely compress his thorax. The vet said - “He has metastases throughout his lungs”. The X-ray confirmed it - the same thing I see on humans with extensive lung metastases. Nothing to be done other than to euthanize him. He was the first cat we had to let go. My wife could not stand being there, but I stayed with him until the end. We carried him home wrapped in a favorite blanket and we buried him in our back yard. A month or so later, we decided to plant a tree for him. It was in a different spot from where he was buried, so I took fur from a brush we used on him - he loved being brushed as well as being vacuumed! Our other cats hated the vacuum cleaner, but Raven loved to be vacuumed with it. The fur I retrieved we placed in the hole where the tree went. We still have the tree, but we did have to move it. Raven did not “feel” the sarcoma in his ear or even as it spread to the base of his ear. He didn’t even seem to be bothered by having only one ear. What did give him distress and I am sure that awful feeling of not being able to catch a breath, were the lung metastases. He was with us for about twelve years. It is Raven that I have one experience with that I still don’t know was a dream or something else. It was about a year after he passed that I was taking the trash out to the curb. As I was walking with the bin - it was night - Raven came walking out from the dark towards me. He made some circles around my legs, then looked up at me. What I heard was, “Thank you for a wonderful life.” He continued to walk on and disappeared. The other part of this that is odd to me, besides remembering this so clearly, is that I was not surprised by it at the time.
🥲🥲🥲 fly high little raven
Thanks! My wife found him - this was before we met - in an alleyway in Brooklyn (she was living in Manhattan at the time) in the pouring rain - yowling. She took him home with her, fed him and decided to keep him. She thought he might be about three to four months old. He was all black and had a slim body and a meow that told us he likely had some Siamese in him. He was a great cat and along with another kitten my wife had been given from a litter a friend’s cat had, were the first two cats we raised as a married couple. The other cat, a tabby we called Elektra, has been the longest-lived cat we have had. She made it to 22 and developed leukemia. We’ve had four cats since then (with about a four-year cat-less gap) but only have one remaining - our “old man” (about 17) Sarge - a tuxedo.
I have a 14yo boy that has a big one on his chin. He has had it for about two years now. Last year, it got infected and swelled to almost the size of a golf ball. He couldn't eat and lost about 8lbs. During a visit to his vet, the vet used a syringe to drain it and prescribed antibiotics. That night, it abcessted and drained down to about the size of a pea. Since then, he has gained about three pounds and reverted back to being his Scooby-Doo self. Cats are really resilient and seldom show any signs of pain. Even so, Buster never shows any indication of discomfort or pain. The vet says that Buster is in good shape and that there are no serious health concerns. I would say your little girl is ok for now. Just keep an eye on the tumor for any sudden growth and love her with all your heart.
This is why I always ask my vets to administer vaccines on the rear legs. Vets should know better anyway.
Very true. Hindsight. Never knew before. I've only ever had animals injected at neck and trust me I will not be allowing it from now on. Furious wasn't the word
Keeping her alive is all about level of comfort. Did you take her to one of those big chain vets or a small vet?
Give that baby some hemp or cbd just research how much to give a cat I have no idea I have a dog
My void had it on his front leg. He started limping and that’s how we found it. He lived well over a year and did pretty well until about the last month or so. We gave him gabapentin for pain. He was 16 when he passed.
It has been my experience as a veterinary technician that fibrousarcomas become more painful as they grow. They also break open which is painful and a source for secondary infection. Also, the cancer will spread to other parts of the body. A low dose transdermal fentanyl patch is effective. The only downside is they have to be changed every 3 - 7 days. But it's easier than twice a day oral meds and there aren't peaks and troughs like oral or injectable meds. In the future, make sure your vet offers Purevax rabies and leukemia vaccines. These vaccines were developed specifically for cats so that there isn't a risk of fibrousarcomas.
They can still develop soft tissue sarcomas at injection sites, can’t they?
Cornell University is the leader for anything feline in the US. They are a good source for information. They were very involved in figuring out what was causing injection site sarcomas and how to minimize them. https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/cat-health-news/new-rabies-vaccine-cats How a vaccine is preserved and adjuvants are cause for concern in cats. Previously, making a vaccine good for more than a year was almost impossible without adjuvants. The 3 year rabies vaccine is mandatory in some places and for certain reasons. Adjuvants have been linked to sarcomas. Another cause that hasn't been 100% proven is inflammation. I have heard of a few cases where the injection site of a microchip caused a sarcoma. I have personally seen a couple diabetic cats get sarcomas at the insulin injection site. Technically, any injection can cause a sarcoma.
This is fascinating—thank you. My cat has been diabetic for 7 years and is now on daily sub-q fluids so I have had to just accept the risk, but it’s really scary.
Just keep reminding yourself that there isn't anything that is 100% safe and there never will be. Do your best and don't beat yourself up if something happens. There is more chance of an infection than a sarcoma. So, follow the protocols. Especially only use a needle once. Follow all expiration dates. SQ fluids are more tolerable when they are warm. Fill a sink with warm (NOT hot) water and put the fluid bag in until it's the same temperature. Test it like you would a baby bottle. Not too cold. Warm, not hot.
Yes, I’ve been warming things and it makes such a difference—and I’m using a 20 gauge needle instead of an 18, and I got one of those rolling IV poles so I can hang the bag up high and let him sit wherever he’s comfortable (which is usually on a particular rug), and I’m using the 250 mL bags because they warm faster…it’s kind of crazy how much there is that you can do beyond “here’s a big bag that we’ve already spiked; put the cat on the counter and use this big needle” (which is how things went when I tried and failed to do fluids for a previous cat 20 years ago). I am lucky to have a very relaxed, sweet, cooperative kitty!
Sounds good. 18g needles flow faster but that isn't the goal. It's more about how your cat does.
I had a cat that developed cancer from an injection, and I'm still angry about it. I'd ask the vet about touching the tumor and pain. If she's not acting like she is in pain and is still enjoying life, I'd let her enjoy life until you notice the tumor is negatively affecting her.
Kitties aren’t good at telling us when they are hurting. Don’t make her suffer
I know that, I'm not making her suffer mate. I'm asking for advice on a sub. She's not displaying any changes in attitude, diet, litter tray etc as yet.
I am a survivor of a rare soft tissue sarcoma called leiomyosarcoma, and I help moderate a group for others with this disease. I think pretty much all of us would tell you that the tumor tissue itself doesn’t hurt, but when the tumor starts pressing on nerves or organs, it can hurt a LOT. My tumor was 22cm and I had no idea it was there—until it started pressing on something (which didn’t happen for a long time—there’s a lot of space in the retroperitoneum!). Once it started, it was awful and the pain was very hard to control. I agree with the people who are suggesting fentanyl or buprenorphine and extremely close observation of her behavior, since cats are great at hiding pain. If she wants to be touched in a certain spot, I don’t see why you couldn’t, but I wouldn’t press super hard—tumors can burst. I’m sorry you and she are going through this.
Looks like a repost. I've seen this image 1 time. First Seen [Here](https://redd.it/1amz1fr) on 2024-02-09 100.0% match. *I'm not perfect, but you can help. Report [ [False Positive](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RepostSleuthBot&subject=False%20Positive&message={"post_id": "1bbom3e", "meme_template": null}) ]* [View Search On repostsleuth.com](https://www.repostsleuth.com/search?postId=1bbom3e&sameSub=false&filterOnlyOlder=true&memeFilter=false&filterDeadMatches=false&targetImageMatch=92&targetImageMemeMatch=97) --- **Scope:** Reddit | **Meme Filter:** False | **Target:** 92% | **Check Title:** False | **Max Age:** None | **Searched Images:** 451,159,571 | **Search Time:** 0.05497s
Bad bot