Snickers
I had a bad week last week. On Saturday the 4th I found a lump, the size of a ping pong ball, on Snickers. My parent's 11 year old kitty cat. One of the healthiest we've owned.
On Tuesday the 7th my dad took him to the vet and they said because of the irregularity of it's shape, the location on the back leg, and how funky monkey it feels, that it's most likely a vaccine induced sarcoma. They did a fine needle aspiration to send it off for a biopsy and said results would take 3-5 days.
We decided to keep it from Tori. He's her cat and she had finals last week, freaking out about them all the week long.
I had hoped it was an abscess. When they thought it was more and the aspiration didn't produce pus, I hoped it was some easy benign growth. My parents and I did research on vaccine induced sarcomas. Scary shit. When they found a correlation between the rabies or FeLV vaccine and tumors, they switched from giving it in the shoulder blade to the hind leg. So that if it's found, the leg is amputated right away and the cat gets one. more. year. No surgery grants us 2-6 months with our kitty. Radiation and chemotherapy do nothing, statistically, to prolong the life.
Thursday morning the vet calls with a positive test result. Tells my mom she can drop off Snickers for blood work and to have a free consult with their surgeon.
The vet calls the house instead of the cell phones he was instructed to call. Tori answers. The surgeon thinks, just by feeling, that the tumor has spread into the groin. The only surgery would be a full amputation up to the hip and that might buy us 2 months before a recurrence. Recurring tumors come back 10x worse, so he'd only have another month after that. The vet starts explaining options and alternatives for referral hospitals before he pauses long enough for her to tell him she's only the daughter. He says he'll call my dad so she hangs up and immediately calls my mom, hysterical. This is about 10 minutes before she has to leave to get a cavity filled. Poor kid held it together ok until she could come back home.
I got home and felt terrible. Started crying about the horrible prognosis and poor Tori's way of hearing the news. Couldn't do anything but go over to my parents house for hugs and company. Didn't actually eat anything until like 9pm. Didn't leave until about 11. Got no sleep.
I emailed Dr C (my exotic vet mentor) for advice after we heard about the positive test result. She told me to call her Friday. Friday morning I felt awful. Adjusted my food day so I could fit in an iced Capp (I'm doing WW again independently. Lost almost 9 lbs since my bday). I called Dr C at 11am after trying to work for a couple hours. I felt like I'd start bawling as soon as she called back. I almost lost it just asking if she was available. Between holding back tears and the anxiety of maybe crying, I couldn't concentrate. I just left work at like 12:30. Didn't tell anyone, but no one really supervises us anyway.
Went home and napped for about 10 minutes. Couldn't eat lunch. Finally felt ok around 6, Dr C called back about 8. I was sane when we talked. Basically we both agreed it was terrible but she assured me that since we did our research, we knew what was up and we all had a good mindset.
His blood came back incredibly perfect. Now the choice is: leave it or get imaging. Imaging can tell us for sure if amputation would give us another year. My mom's vote is no. Amputation for a year is not worth it to her. So we'll see.
Poor lumpy Snick-Snack.
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