I Need More Advice For My Cat With Oral Cancer... What Would You Do?

[Oldladykatie]

Rocko had horrible swelling on the side of his face with the cancer.. it became so bad that when he scratched it it opened up and bled leaving a wound but the swelling completely disappeared. Before being put on antibiotics a few days later due to draining pus...the lady at the vet told me i need to put the cone of shame on rocko or it will keep getting worse... hes not scratching at it, just cleaning it when it drains. Now its a couple days later and he seems to be feeling a lot better but my husband and I both agree that we realllllly dont want to put the cone of shame on him, bc he hates it and we want him to have quality of life... am i making the wrong decision? I dont know what to do!

 

[Antonio65]

Here it's a matter of giving him a good quality of life in his last months, or keeping him as safe as possible.
A wound like the one he has could lead to infections that could be hard to treat.

Is there any chance he stops pawing at his face and the wound heals on its own?
The fact it was swollen and then it disappeared when he tore it open makes me think it was just pus filling it.
You could wait and see if it heals on its own, or put the cone on him for a very few days to help the wound heal a bit until it is safe.

 

[Oldladykatie]

Yes thats what I am considering... only problem is that he never touches it unless it drains and it usually drains when he eats or opens his mouth in discomfort from the tumor. I feel like even with a cone the wound isnt going to close bc of where it is located and the fact that I cant prevent him from opening his mouth. Also if I put the cone on I will have to wipe the drainage away myself which he also hate ughhhh I can’t win!

 

[FeebysOwner]

You might want to consider wiping it daily and removing the drainage - whether you like it or not. If he only touches it when it drains, and you clean away the drainage maybe he would touch it less and that would help with healing. Perhaps, if the drainage isn't allowed to accumulate as much and the wound is allowed to heal a little, it wouldn't break open as easily - or at all - when he opens his mouth??

This wound is not the actual tumor, correct?

Other members on this site will hopefully have some idea about what you could use to when wiping it down. I know I have heard of chamomile tea bags being brewed in water, then cooling down the mixture and using cotton balls to dab on wounds. It is soothing and does have healing properties as well.

Sorry, if I said anything 'harsh', I don't mean it that way...

 

[Oldladykatie]

No worries, not harsh one bit. I have no problem wiping it at all, i already do sometimes if I can get to it first... plus I already have to torture him with multiple medication administrations so whats one more thing.. however, It’s more about not wanting him to wear the cone. May sound bad but I’d rather have less time with him being comfortable than more time with him wearing that stupid cone... afterall we did choose the comfort route for him. Also,we are afraid that if the wound closes right now his face will just swell back up since the drainage will have no outlet. So we want to at least let the Antibiotics run their course before deciding... ‍

 

[FeebysOwner]

I was just hoping if you routinely wiped it down and treated it with something soothing/healing that it would help to keep the fluid accumulation down, and therefore it would mean less drainage - and less reason for him to bother with it. The less he bugs it, the less reason for the cone.

 

[Oldladykatie]

Yes, i am going to start cleaning it with saline and see if there is some type of pet friendly topical antibiotic

 

[Jem]

One thing you can do (double check with the vet of course). If the wound is still open, and draining, using a warm compress before wiping it clean can help draw out more "drainage" and infection (pus). Just soak a washcloth in a warm saline solution, and hold it to the wound until it cools. Then wipe away any "mess" with another clean saline dampened wash cloth, or cotton ball, or whatever you like to use to clean it. At that point you could dab on a safe antibiotic cream from the vet if you have one, or as someone else mentioned, dab on some cooled chamomile tea (from the tea bags, not loose leaf) it can help heal and sooth it so it does not bother him as much.
If you do the warm compress a few times a day, it could help draw out the "drainage" before it has time to ooze out on it's own, limiting how often your cat tries to clean it. And if you allow the wound to stay as clean as possible it may help prevent it from crusting over then "cracking open" whenever he uses his mouth.

I will add though that if and when you see that a "good scab" has formed, do not keep wetting it, try to only clean away oozy/crusty stuff. At this point you want the scab to stay there to keep out infection and close the wound.

Again, I would double check with the vet, but my cat had a bad wound once, not quite as big as your cats mind you, and that is what we did. It worked really well to prevent infection and everything healed well.

 

[Oldladykatie]

Thank you for the great advice! I am going to try that! I appreciate it!! And so will Rocko

 

[Mamanyt1953]

You could even use a compress of warm chamomile tea for this, for both the antibiotic qualities, and the soothing qualities...and it would be less painful than saline on an open wound.

I'm all for giving him all the comfort you can at this point. Make his remaining time as much of a pleasure for him as is possible.

 

[Antonio65]

You could even use a compress of warm chamomile tea for this, for both the antibiotic qualities, and the soothing qualities...and it would be less painful than saline on an open wound.

Now I remember that I used black tea compresses for my Lola when she had a very sore skin after a radiation treatment.
Cold black tea, of course.
She would feel much better.

 

[Oldladykatie]

You could even use a compress of warm chamomile tea for this, for both the antibiotic qualities, and the soothing qualities...and it would be less painful than saline on an open wound.

I'm all for giving him all the comfort you can at this point. Make his remaining time as much of a pleasure for him as is possible.

Gonna go to the store this morning... thank you!!! Hopefully this will help a bit

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Let me know. If it does help, I'll add it to the list of things that work!

 

[Oldladykatie]

Let me know. If it does help, I'll add it to the list of things that work!

Unfortunately I can’t really say! I used the chamomile warm compress one time follow by a dab of hot spot remedy (for dogs) which i applied with a q-tip... after doing that one time his wound closed and hasn’t opened since!

 

[Jem]

That's fantastic! So glad he's healing up!

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Good enough! Could have been the combination. I'll file that away for later reference!