My neighbour’s 23-year-old(!) moggie, Tom, has recently developed a lump on its shoulder that’s puzzling us.
The lump appeared over the course of a few days, and is roughly the shape and size of a large egg, in fact a little bigger. It’s located on the top of the cat’s left shoulder, somewhat to the side of vertical. The cat doesn’t seem to be in any physical discomfort, even when the lump is touched and prodded, and he’s walking and jumping perfectly normally for a cat of that extreme age. There is no sign of a limp.
What’s puzzling both of us is that the lump feels bony to the touch, with no give at all. My neighbour’s son said it must be a dislocated shoulder on that basis, but I disagree on the grounds that Tom wouldn’t be able to walk properly and would be exhibiting signs of being in pain if that were the case.
My neighbour can’t afford to pay normal vet’s fees, so she is trying to get an appointment at the local PDSA (charitable organisation), but it’s taking a long time for bureaucratic reasons. In the meantime, she’s very concerned, so I offered to ask here:
I don’t know the medical term for it, but it could very well be a mutant lump of fat. Yeah, I know, it’s hard, but that’s part of the mutating process. My uncle’s dog developed a similar lump at an advanced age and the family panicked, thinking that it was cancer. They rushed the dog to the vet thinking that rover’s days were numbered. The vet checked the dog out and announced bemusedly that it was just a lump of fat.
I am not a vet and we should probably invoke vetbridge just in case he does vanity searches.
But I will say that based on my limited ( sad ) experience, fibrosarcomas can feel surprisingly firm, in my cat’s case it didn’t cause any obvious discomfort ( until it finally started ulcerating right before removal ) and can grow very rapidly. Hopefully it’s not that.
Tamerlane’s experience sounds applicable. In a cat, the majority of skin masses are malignant. In dogs, they statistically are more often benign. If the mass is hard, fibrosarcoma is very likely. I would have it checked asap.
One of our cats seems to have grown something similar on one of its forelimbs. It’s not the size of an egg–more like the size of a pencil eraser right now. It’s maybe two months since we noticed it and it’s not growing very fast, but it is growing. Sounds like we should have it checked out anyway.
Vetbridge, you say “asap,” but does that mean “today” or could it possibly be longer? The reason I ask is that our cats will make their annual trip to the vet for physicals and shots in about a month. Can we wait until then, do you think, or is this something we really should get attended to sooner?
Thanks, everyone - I’ve told my neighbour what you’ve said, and she’s managed to get an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. I’ll report back when I know more.
RIP, Tom. He had a good innings - he was close to 24.
I don’t know the diagnosis yet, but I can hear Sylvia (my neighbour, the cat’s owner for all his life) wailing in grief. She’s extremely distressed, understandably. Her daughter rang me up to confirm that Tom had indeed been euthanised by the vet.
When Sylvia’s calm enough to receive visitors, I’ll begin gently persuading her that right now is a good time to look for a kitten.
…or an older–and thus “unadoptable”–cat, who needs a home.
My mother got an excellent older cat who is the light of her life, by answering a “free to good home” ad from an elderly couple who couldn’t take care of her any more. Three people won there: my mom, the elders, and the cat.
I spoke to Sylvia earlier this evening, and she’s determined not to have another cat (of whatever age). I can understand that reaction, but maybe it’s too early for her to be realistic about it. She does say that she can’t stop looking for Tom; each time she realises that he’s not going to be there, she gets hugely upset all over again.
I’ll keep working on this, though - Sylvia obviously loves cats (as I do), and, living on her own as she does, would benefit from the companionship of another one. She’d probably benefit more than she realises, since Tom was not a very affectionate moggie.
The reason I’d thought that a young cat would be a good idea was that there’d be less chance of her having to go through this trauma again in at least the medium term. I do agree with goose otherwise, though - there are plenty of older cats looking for new homes. There are also plenty of young cats and kittens, of course - sometimes one has to be pragmatic.
And since she’s had her cat longer than I’ve had my eldest child (egad, what a thought), I wouldn’t expect her to be able to rush right out and replace it. Some things just grow into your life and it takes time to un-grow them.
I wouldn’t “gift” her with a cat, either, just because you think “it’s time”. Those kinds of things rarely work out well. Her next cat ought to be one she selects herself. (You knew that, yeah. )
And, of course, it’s possible that this might turn out to be a not unwelcome opening for her to branch out into something else. Dogs, say, or perhaps a parakeet, or potbellied pigs. You never know.
I accept what you’re all saying. I’ll not try to influence her at all - it’s not really any of my business. Thanks for your inputs.
Actually, she seems to be coping pretty well. I spoke to her today, and she’s obviously still upset, but seems to have accepted the loss of Tom pretty well. It’s just that she keeps going out and getting more than slightly drunk, that’s all. Hmmm. That’s understandable.
He had a good innings - he was close to 24.
