Mammary Tumors

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laureen227

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I adopted this cat when she was about a year old, she wasn't spayed, when she went into heat later but I never got her fixed because she was an indoor cat & I thought it would be hard on her, I had no idea about breast cancer in cats, now I hate myself because I feel responsible for her suffering.
If it helps, one of mine got those tumors, as well. She had been spayed at about 5-6 months.
That vet said it didn't have anything to do with it. Of course, this was about 25-30 years ago...
 

cat princesses

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I believe she had the first lump at age 21 or close to 22. We removed one of them and then another came and that’s when we decided to just leave things alone and let her enjoy whatever time she had left. Thankfully I never dealt with bleeding or anything. She had kidney disease as well. I sprayed her later in life around age 8 the vet said the longer you wait to spay a female the greater risk they are to get mammary cancer. I never knew that.
 
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MoxZig

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Well today is the day, I dropped Moxie off this morning, I was doing so well keeping myself together but before we got picked up I just lost it. She was so calm & happy last night & slept curled up at my legs all night. This morning she was just so sweet then I had to put her in her crate & go... I hated being upset in front of her, I didn't want to upset her & I made my boyfriend's mom cry after we dropped her off..it was so hard to keep myself together with still this uncertainty in my heart if I'm doing the best for her.

I wanted to speak to the doctor, I had more questions after reading more up on the surgery but the front desk lady was rather short with me & said they weren't there yet. I made it clear that if her blood work or x-ray looked off I needed them to contact me before they proceeded. I got one call from them so far saying the x-ray looked fine from what they could see. But of course I'm not naive & know that sometimes they don't see everything, but I thought by now if it had spread to lungs it would be obvious. Of course my mind is still going crazy with worry with all these what ifs. Am I doing the right thing? Is she scared? Will they keep her warm & be sweet with her? So many worries & thoughts..

I just wanted to send an update to everyone who has replied to my post. I really hope this goes smoothly. I can't relax & I want to pick up the phone every 30minutes to check in but don't want to annoy them, It's been 2 hours now since I heard from them, surely by now they have done her blood work. I'm sure she's hungry & I hate that she has to wait so long to eat but then she's probably too stressed to eat... what else can I do right now but worry? :'(
 

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I'm so sorry your going through this, I can only imagine how much anxiety you've got going on, I remember my anxiety from just routine spay with each of mine. I hope she does marvelously and you hear from them soon all with good news. And hoping for a quick and smooth recovery :vibes:
 
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MoxZig

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MY BABY IS HOME!! They called about the blood work and told me she was anemic (I'm certain from how much blood was coming out from the tumors for a week!) They said it made it very high risk for complications during surgery, but said if I want to give her a fighting chance and good quality of life after surgery then I should go ahead with it so I did.

I can't tell you how fast I ran to the phone when they called an hour & a half later! They sounded positive right away so my anxiety slightly diminished there & then. They said she did great & Moxie was sitting in the crate staring at her LOL I asked if that means I can come get her & they said I could. I honestly thought they would keep her overnight given the type of surgery (spayed & tumor removal).

She's here now in the bathroom. She does not want to be in there and has made 2 attempts to run out even jumping up on the coffee table. I worry she's going to hurt herself. I guess I was hoping she would be too exhausted to care about being cooped up in the bathroom but now my worry is what to do now post-care.

Any suggestions? I don't have a dog crate to put her in, that would be ideal and I'm trying to locate one. Is that the only sure-way to make sure she is ok after surgery?
 

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Yay!

Are you able to stay home with her the next few days? If you have to be away, she definitely needs to be confined or she'll do too much. If you can stay home and can prevent her from, say, jumping off the bookcase, then go ahead and let her be loose. Stress can hinder healing so whatever keeps her stress levels down.

If she's been feeling bad for a while, and now finally all that nastiness is gone, she's probably feeling better now than she has in a long time, even after surgery! But I think she'll be feeling it tomorrow and won't be as active. How many days worth of painkillers did they send home with her?
 

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I adopted this cat when she was about a year old, she wasn't spayed, when she went into heat later but I never got her fixed because she was an indoor cat & I thought it would be hard on her, I had no idea about breast cancer in cats, now I hate myself because I feel responsible for her suffering.
I know I'm responding to the older post here but just as a quick note, both spaying and not spaying have their own health risks. They (I do too!) promote spaying more because it's the solution for several different problems but they are not necessarily directly about health -- like so many cats are homeless already and new kittens won't help, an intact cat is more likely to misbehave at home and get abandoned by the human, more likely to fight outside during mating competition/rejection and get a disease from the wound or cause wounds in other cats, more likely to escape home, etc So in the big picture getting a cat spayed is absolutely the better option for most cats AND their humans.

It's not the human's "fault" if one of the health risks of not getting the cat spayed happens. We can't foresee the future nor can protect them from everything forever.
 
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Mamanyt1953

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A large dog crate would be ideal if you can't be with her every minute. Try some of the farm supply or home and garden places. They often have them. Or even sporting goods stores sometimes have them for hunting dogs.
 
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MoxZig

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Yay!

Are you able to stay home with her the next few days? If you have to be away, she definitely needs to be confined or she'll do too much. If you can stay home and can prevent her from, say, jumping off the bookcase, then go ahead and let her be loose. Stress can hinder healing so whatever keeps her stress levels down.

If she's been feeling bad for a while, and now finally all that nastiness is gone, she's probably feeling better now than she has in a long time, even after surgery! But I think she'll be feeling it tomorrow and won't be as active. How many days worth of painkillers did they send home with her?
Hi Willowy, I only had to work the day after surgery for a couple hours and have been home the rest of the time. When I leave the bathroom door open the first couple of days she would come out & walk around, but would soon go back in the bathroom I guess because my curious boy was getting a little too close, It made me uncomfortable too because he has been known to want to wrestle & play too much so I just let her stay in the bathroom. She has a litterbox with mostly shredded paper & a cup of regular litter because she wasn't sure what the paper was or what to do with it, I didn't want her holding in her pee or poops. She also has towels to lay on, food, water & a catnip toy. I periodically spray the calming Feliway in there just to ensure she doesn't get stressed.

I know she is hating the cone. I guess my big worry is her comfort level. All she's been doing is laying around, I hope that's normal.. it's been 3 days since her surgery. She is on her last dose of pain meds & I brought her in yesterday to check her stitches & they said she's healing fine. I should feel relieved but there's still that underlying stress that something could happen still post-surgery. I have to return to work today & 2 days from now I work a double so I'll have to leave her by herself longer than I would like. :(
 
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MoxZig

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A large dog crate would be ideal if you can't be with her every minute. Try some of the farm supply or home and garden places. They often have them. Or even sporting goods stores sometimes have them for hunting dogs.
Hi Mamanyt1953, I went online a couple days ago & got her a cat crate, it was one that you can fold up & kinda pops out into a miniature cat house. But she was terrified of it so I never actually got her in it, but had it set up. 2x I would walk in the room & it had collapsed. I don't know if it was doing it on it's own or my rambunctious boy was jumping on it without me knowing but I wasn't about to find out the hard way with her inside & it collapsing so I am returning it. She's been in the bathroom since she's been home from surgery. I want her out here with me but it's like she prefers to be in there now not even attempting to walk out and explore like she was wanting to do when she first got home. Honestly, I think that first day she was really wanting to go hide under our bed but we blocked it off. I hope she's ok. I find it weird she doesn't at all want to leave the bathroom.
 
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MoxZig

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I'm so glad she's home!! Try and keep her calm while she recovers. How is she acting today?
Hi Stacydc83, I haven't been online these past couple of days because I kept finding myself searching post-surgery worse case scenarios & stressing myself out. Though I'm still on edge I brought her in yesterday to get her sutures looked at, I thought she had some litter stuck in one of the stitch but they said she looked fine, she's a bit scabby there but they said it's mending like it should.

Now she just wants to stay in the bathroom constantly, I don't know if it's because of the cone & she's having trouble getting around or if she's in pain. She has one more dose of Buprenorphine left, I asked them if she needed more & they said No. But if she is just laying around does that mean she's in too much pain to move? I can't bear the thought of her in a lot of pain. I can't wait for the stitches to come out so she can leave that bathroom. I go in there & pet her & tend her other needs but she must be lonely :( I think they said she can come back in 7 days to get the stitches out but that was the day of surgery they said that. I should've asked them yesterday what they think time-wise would be good to go back & have them taken out.
 

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It can be difficult to tell if a post-surgery cat is in pain. Sometimes they will lie around doing nothing because they are feeling exhausted from the recovery process, or zonked out on pain meds, or they are unhappy with the small area they are being kept in for recovery, or the cone is bugging them. But sometimes they will lie around doing nothing because they are in pain. Does she seem more comfortable after you give her the buprenorphine? If so, I would say she still needs it. But if it doesn't seem to make much difference, she might not be in as much pain and she may be lying around primarily because she is recuperating from surgery. It's a major surgery and will take time for the recovery.
 
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MoxZig

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It can be difficult to tell if a post-surgery cat is in pain. Sometimes they will lie around doing nothing because they are feeling exhausted from the recovery process, or zonked out on pain meds, or they are unhappy with the small area they are being kept in for recovery, or the cone is bugging them. But sometimes they will lie around doing nothing because they are in pain. Does she seem more comfortable after you give her the buprenorphine? If so, I would say she still needs it. But if it doesn't seem to make much difference, she might not be in as much pain and she may be lying around primarily because she is recuperating from surgery. It's a major surgery and will take time for the recovery.
I don't notice much difference after giving her the Buphrenorphine. If anything she seems more tired after. My concern is that her laying around comes in waves, I know when I'm in pain i'll be ok for a little bit then the pain will come & put me out. She's eating,drinking and using the litterbox. I read that they won't eat if they are hurting too much.
 
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MoxZig

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I know I'm responding to the older post here but just as a quick note, both spaying and not spaying have their own health risks. They (I do too!) promote spaying more because it's the solution for several different problems but they are not necessarily directly about health -- like so many cats are homeless already and new kittens won't help, an intact cat is more likely to misbehave at home and get abandoned by the human, more likely to fight outside during mating competition/rejection and get a disease from the wound or cause wounds in other cats, more likely to escape home, etc So in the big picture getting a cat spayed is absolutely the better option for most cats AND their humans.

It's not the human's "fault" if one of the health risks of not getting the cat spayed happens. We can't foresee the future nor can protect them from everything forever.
I agree and have I known now what I wish I knew then I would'v gotten her spayed when i adopted her.
 

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It's great that she is eating, drinking, and using the box. It sounds to me like you are doing all the right things, recovery is progressing well, and mostly it will just take time.
 

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I agree and have I known now what I wish I knew then I would'v gotten her spayed when i adopted her.
My entry got edited by moderation. I didn’t word it like accusing you, the edited version feels like it maybe. The point of the original post was spaying is better but this wasn’t your fault nor necessarily about her not getting spayed. Cancer hits where it can sometimes.
 

laureen227

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My entry got edited by moderation. I didn’t word it like accusing you, the edited version feels like it maybe. The point of the original post was spaying is better but this wasn’t your fault nor necessarily about her not getting spayed. Cancer hits where it can sometimes.
exactly. I had a cat who had been spayed at around 6 months, & she got mammary tumors anyway.
 

Mamanyt1953

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How is she today? The lying around and staying to herself is perfectly normal for a few days after a major surgery.
 
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