Please say a quick prayer for one of my grand cats...

[Tina B and crew]

My daughter just noticed this morning that her cat lily has a lump under her chin. It's pretty hard and there no visible redness or anything. She does not seem to be in discomfort but you know cats. Anyway, my daughter is on the way to see the vet so please say a prayer that this is nothing serious.

[Tina B and crew]

Vet did bloodwork and a biopsy. Worse case is cancer. Best case is infection. She did have some reddening of the gums so hopefully it is infection. The bloodwork should be back today, and they put her on antibiotics. Please say a prayer. My daughter is awfully upset.

[Traci]

All my prayers are being sent that this is nothing serious, hang in there and think good thoughts!

[Tina B and crew]

Thanks Traci. This seemed to pop up quickly. Lily seems to be doing ok right now. I think the swelling/thickening was mostly on the lower right mandible. She's been eating ok. My heart just aches for my daughter because she's anticipating the worst.

[Tina B and crew]

Blood work is back. Leukocytes were low. CBC normal. Calcium slightly elevated. My daughter is thinking the worst. Any thoughts on what it could be outside of cancer? (Which is what she suspects...and I can move this to the appropriate forum if necessary)

[Tina B and crew]

Everything else is normal except elevated albumin.

[Traci]

Without some additional information, it's hard to say.
How old is Lily and has she had her thyroid checked?
Were her lymph nodes checked? Were they swollen?

Has Lily been sick lately, or had any viruses or bacterial infections of late? Does she have an adequate vaccination history? There are a dozen things to rule out, but the "slightly" elevated calcium, if not overly high, may not be too much cause for concern at this point, at least in absence of other enzymes. If this was a complete chemical profile and nothing else was out of range, it may not be significant.

The elevated albumin may have been due to dehydration, depending on how high it was. Sometimes the dehydration is due to a liver problem, but if Lily's liver enzymes were normal, then this has probably been ruled out.

If the CBC was otherwise normal, I would ask the vet about rechecking it in another few days to see if the leukocyte counts are going up - if they do, then infection or virus would possibly be the cause of the low count and treating with antibiotics might help. Assuming Lily is not anemic, pale, sluggish, and is eating fine and otherwise bright/alert/responsive, and the recheck on the CBC is good, I'd guess infection.

Retest the calcium as well, if it was higher than normal range today. It doesn't sound like it was though, so have to defer to vet's opinion on that.

When are the biopsy results expected back? Was the lump hard or soft?

[Tina B and crew]

The levels that were out of range were only slightly out of range. She's been vaccinated but I think she's not completely up to date. She is exclusively indoors only and always has been since I rescued her as a kitten about 9-10 years ago. She had a lump under her chin...not sure if it was swollen lymph or not. Gums on the right side of lower jaw were reddened. She's otherwise been healthy with no problems at all. Biopsy should be in by Thurs I think. That will at least give some more definitive answers. Vet did say she couldn't rule out cancer just by visual inspection.

[Traci]

What was the size of the lump?

[Tina B and crew]

Maybe a little bigger than a pea. It is in the hollow under her chin. The swelling is pulling her bottom lip down kind of exposing her lip...that's how it was noticed.