Syzdekistan

The vet had noticed a lump on Spencer’s right shoulder blade. I hadn’t noticed it and I felt terrible for missing it. However, Spencer is a pretty hairy cat and before his grooming, it was probably well hidden by hair. Also, like many semi-domesticated felines, he is pretty independent and doesn’t like to be petted or touched. He has always been thin but with his recent weight loss (from 8 to 6 pounds) he is pretty bony and skinny. Still, I felt terrible for not noticing what now looked like an enormous and unsightly lump on his shoulder.

We quickly decided that further investigation was needed. The vet took Spencer away for blood work, a x-ray, and a biopsy. I took the other cats home and my mom helped with the kids while I busied myself around the house with some mindless chores. I talked to the vet in the early afternoon and left the napping kids with Mom to pick Spencer up.

Definitive diagnosis and prognosis will have to wait until the biopsy results come in but the initial results of the x-ray and biopsy were interesting. The x-ray showed a low-density circular void in the scapula with a thick, bony shell of bone around it. Whatever it was had grown in the bone and the bone had ossified at the margins. The center was soft tissue and not bone. It will be interesting to see what type of cells are there in the center of the tumor. Good news is that there were no sign of other tumors in Spencer’s body. The vet postulated on two possibilities. One was that the tumor was a expansile lesion or a chondrosarcoma. Bone tumors are rare in cats. Here is some information on tumors in cats and dogs and some information on cat tumors. Treatment and prognosis of bone tumors (osteosarcoma) is discussed here and here and here.

We should here some test results by the middle of next week. Meanwhile, Spencer has been pretty quiet. He lies in the sun on our bed most of the time. However, isn’t that what healthy cats do?

Here is a picture of the lump after it has been shaved and biopsied. We’ll do what it takes to get this diagnosed and decide what to do based on on his prognosis. Since Spencer is over 10 years old, we probably won’t be too aggressive on treatment of this lump. It’s a tough decision to put an animal to sleep, but it often is the best thing for the animal.