Posting for a good friend- Help Needed.

[Yzma]

A friend of mine in iceland is having some problems with her cat. She signed up on cat help last night but she was unable to post her post, so she emailed it to me and asked if i would post if for her.
Could you guys please read it and see if you have any info/advice for her?
Thanks
________________

Hi!
I just joined this forum (been meaning to for a long timr), but now I ungently need advice.

My darling Pollýanna, an allmost 8 years old tortie, has been so very ill, and I have been so worried for her. She is so much more than "just a cat" to me, we are very close, so she is more dear to me than many of my relatives , and so very important to me.

This time her illness started last October when she started loosing fur on her tummy and legs. The vet believed this to be some hormonal thing and gave her a hormonal shot (I think the same as is used for dogs as contraception). The shot was supposed to wear off in 2-3 months, but soon after the shot she started getting a lot of cysts on her front, that kept growing. A few years ago she was on the contraception pill and when she started getting the same kind of cysts then, I took her off the pill, and the cysts disapeared.
This time the cysts only got bigger and bigger, even though the hormonal shot should be worn off allready.

To try to dimish the hormonal flow in her body, and in the hope the cysts would go, the vet spayed her, and also took uterus since it was looking very bad, was to far to big and with rough uterus walls.

After this the cysts didnt get any smaller, only continued growing, and felt like they were gonna explode. The vet felt this didnt feel like a cancer tumor, but more like liquid filled cysts.

Since the 2 biggest ones were now the sice of a kiwi or a small apple, they decited to try to get some liquid out from the cysts and also to take a sample to get analysed.

They found out that this was not liquid filled, but like an overgrowth of the tissue. The sample was sent away for analysing.

Even after this, this has continued to grow, and about a week ago the stitches opened from the one that the sample was taken from and the tissue started growing out from the wound. (The biggest one is now the size of a midium apple). The vet took away that extra growth and had to take some skin aroung the cut too since the skin was dead.

Since then (for just over a week), I have had bandages on her that I change every day. The wound has been growing some, but there is still liquid comming from the wound each day, and some of it has turned black.

Today I got the call from the vet, about the results of the tissue sample. She said it is not cancer - yet. At least not in this cysts where the tissue sample was taken.

The options I have now is to wait and hope this will stop growing and hopefully get smaller (some of the cysts got smaller, but have started growing again, and are now bigger than they were in the first place).

Or I can let the vet operate and try to cut this off, but that would take several operations, since this is far to big to take in one op.
The vet also told me about the downside to operate. They could only take small parts of this at the time, in order to have enough skin to close the wound, and also, taking something so big might lead to some fluid formation in the empty space that would be left behind, which would be some trouble. This could also turn into cancer, either by not doing anything, and by starting to take parts of it (as I understood it)

I am so worried and confused. I love my Pollýanna so much, and I want to do everything for her possible, but I dont know what would be the best option.

Have any of you heard of something like this?

Can you please give me some advise??????

Thanx in advance,

Sesselja

[Traci]

In order to provide any real information, I would request alittle clarification:

1) exactly where are these cysts located? You said "in front", but where exactly? Below her neck, on her abdomen, around the mammaries, on the limbs, where?

2) what contraceptive was given her three years ago (name and brand, please), how long had she been on it, and why was this chosen rather than a spay? Did your vet recommend the contraceptive or was there any reason she could not have been spayed prior?

3) on what basis did your vet decide to administer hormone medication? Did he ever test kitty's thyroid function, and was an immunological blood profile ever done? What other diagnostics were done?

4) why did your vet wait so long to try to identify the cysts and why didn't he take a sample at the time of the spay, rather than wait until they grew in size?

5) was this cyst "sample" in fact fluid or tissue, and was it sent to a pathology lab or elsewhere? Since your vet told you it was not cancer, then what were the pathologist's comments on the report? (there had to be pathology comments, the pathologist offers either a confirmation on whether the sample is indeed cancerous or of another type of problem and will help the vet identify it by offering his opinion or by recommending further diagnostics/testing to confirm one way or another)

6) have you consulted another vet/specialist/feline only vet, and more importantly, an oncologist? Since your vet doesn't seem to know anything, this would be your priority, finding an oncologist or a specialist in feline medicine. They are more experienced/knowledgeable in cysts vs tumors, treatment approach, etc. I would think they could tell you much much more than your vet currently is.

7) regardless, I think you need to get a new vet altogether. Since the wounds are open, and most likely infected (as evidence of the necrosed skin), this demands emergency priority care, by a competent vet who has worked with similar cases. Your vet isn't giving you options here, you need to find a vet who will, and will treat those wounds as A-#1 priority before serious infection sets in and becomes detrimental (if it hasn't already) . Plus, you need a confirmation on the type of cysts...if your vet can't make that distinction, she is unqualified to proceed further.

I would stress urgency here. Those wounds are infected and probably not being treated appropriately. Again, you need confirmation, not a wait and see approach. Please, get your kitty to a specialist/oncologist right away.

[Yzma]

I don't think a second opinion would hurt either.... just to cover everything.