Inductive odontogenic tumor

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castoretpollux

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My cat is an almost 8yo tabby.
I took him for a teeth cleaning and the vet said he found this tumor.
It's not an aggressive one but it prevents him from eating. The vet proposed an operation to partly remove the jaw bone, but it's a very invasive surgery and he said not all cat were willing to eat post surgery with only a half jaw bone. The cat are disfigured and the tumor will slowly but surely re grow anyway.
If we do nothing he will just refuse to eat and it will be over.
I don't know what to do. Does anyone know something about this ? Ope or not ope ?
 

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Hi castoretpollux castoretpollux and welcome to TCS!
Did the vet say that the tumour will definitely regrow? Just from the bit of reading I've done, the 3 to 5 year outcomes were very good.
I'm wondering whether a second opinion would be a good idea?
 
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castoretpollux

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Hi castoretpollux castoretpollux and welcome to TCS!
Did the vet say that the tumour will definitely regrow? Just from the bit of reading I've done, the 3 to 5 year outcomes were very good.
I'm wondering whether a second opinion would be a good idea?
The vet said it will probably regrow since he can't take all of it.
I couldn't find much about this, would you mind giving me your sources ?
 

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There's a few, but they say similar things to this one:

What I'm a little confused about is that they are saying that it's unique to young cats.
 
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castoretpollux

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That's weird indeed...
His is situated in the lower part, maybe more on the back (but I can't check, he won't let me)

The vet made a biopsy and the lab said it was "very likely" a FIOT. It's not an osteocarcinome.
I'm afraid though that my vet is only a local vet, so he might not have the brand new accessories described in the paper. He has no CT either.
He said that it would be good to do radiotherapy after the operation if we do it, but we can't do this in any case, because it's too expensive, too far, and too complicated. His intention is to remove whatever he can remove to give Cat a little more time.
(also Cat is diabetic, which complicates things a little...)
 

mani

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I'm not much use to you as I'm just reading what I can find. We may find others who know more. But the fact that it occurs almost universally in young cats is odd.
What is his health like generally, apart from the diabetes?
 
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castoretpollux

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I'm not much use to you as I'm just reading what I can find. We may find others who know more. But the fact that it occurs almost universally in young cats is odd.
What is his health like generally, apart from the diabetes?
Appart from this and the under control diabetes, he's ok. If he doesn't drink enough he sometimes have red pee, but we've been careful and it doesn't happen that often.
He used to weigh more than 9 kilos, he's big.
 

mani

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OK.. let's see if anyone else can help. You're in a similar time zone to me, but a lot of our members are fast asleep right now. :)
 
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castoretpollux

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OK.. let's see if anyone else can help. You're in a similar time zone to me, but a lot of our members are fast asleep right now. :)
That's nice of you, thanks.
The vet said that a cat could live one month like this, but when I go to check on him, he just shows me he's very annoyed with this...:(
 

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I don't know the structure of vet institutions in Japan, but are there any specialty vets (internal med, and/or ears/nose/throat) that your vet can consult with? Here in the US, vets will also reach out to vet universities for consultation, as the universities often study/deal with things that regular vets rarely do.
 

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The surgery is a serious one; make sure that the vet discusses all after care with you, use of a feeding tube, etc. We do have/have had members who have done mandibulectomies, or similar jaw related surgeries; it is labor intensive after the procedure, although I am not trying to discourage you in any way if you feel that this is the way to help your cat.

I do want to encourage you to find the best specialists possible, both for consultations and the surgery if you proceed, even if this means some leg work on your part. Your vet may consult remotely as was suggested, or there may be a specialty clinic to which you can take your cat.
 
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castoretpollux

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I don't know the structure of vet institutions in Japan, but are there any specialty vets (internal med, and/or ears/nose/throat) that your vet can consult with? Here in the US, vets will also reach out to vet universities for consultation, as the universities often study/deal with things that regular vets rarely do.
There's the university hospital, but it's very far from here, so that's not an option...
 
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castoretpollux

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The surgery is a serious one; make sure that the vet discusses all after care with you, use of a feeding tube, etc. We do have/have had members who have done mandibulectomies, or similar jaw related surgeries; it is labor intensive after the procedure, although I am not trying to discourage you in any way if you feel that this is the way to help your cat.

I do want to encourage you to find the best specialists possible, both for consultations and the surgery if you proceed, even if this means some leg work on your part. Your vet may consult remotely as was suggested, or there may be a specialty clinic to which you can take your cat.
We think it's too heavy and too much to bear for Cat, so we will try the surgery and we will contact the vet asap...
 

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Jezibel, one of my outdoor kitties had oral cancer. It had already spread through her bone, and they told me she wasn’t going to survive. It first showed up and she had what looked like a terrible eye infection so I trapped her. I took her to get enucleation and they didn’t seem to have any clue then that it was really cancer, which I suspected because that happened to my dog years and years ago.

She started drooling more from her mouth, and her nose was congested, which she had had for a long time on and off, and she started having trouble eating but she did still eat a little bit.

I was giving her lots of medication because they thought it was FHv. When I took her to get her stitches out I asked them to look at her nose. And they said they couldn’t even get a tube in because it was all blocked off, that’s when they realized she had cancer from an x-ray and it had spread to her face, to the bone.

Dvm said she would have more trouble eating and would eventually starve. I was not going to do anything like surgeries or anything because it was obvious she was going to die, very soon. And they probably wouldn’t do it anyway to be honest with you.

I would not want to make her suffer that way. In fact if I had known she had cancer, which I suspected, and not an eye infection, I would not even have done the enucleation. The thing I feel terrible about is that she spent that time in the drop trap while she was recovering from all of this, and if they had let me know then, none of that would’ve happened. I could’ve just let her stay loose inside, and then decided when to euthanize.

As it was I opted to have her euthanized while she was still sedated when she went to get the stitches out, and they discovered the cancer finally so, I never got to say goodbye to her.

Anyway those are my two stories of oral/facial cancer in my dog and my cat. With my dog it happened the same way- an eye infection which they tried to treat for a long time, and didn’t discover that it was really cancer until it was very bad. For my dog this was many years ago, and the treatment options were even less than now.

Try to find out if your cat has an aggressive type of cancer. If it’s aggressive unfortunately they will not survive anyway and they could suffer a lot so, you have to consider that when considering how you’re going to treat it. It sounds like he might have one that is treatable…I can’t tell from what people posted here.

For Jezebel, it spread very rapidly and I believe now that the enucleation made it spread even faster probably. Especially because they didn’t seem to see any sign of cancer which I find very puzzling. Most of these cancers spread very rapidly. And most are fatal.

A friend whose cat also had an oral cancer which started as a tooth infection, opted not to do treatment and just kept her cat at home and gave supportive care. Her cat lived for three months at home. She did not want to put her through surgeries and tube feeding etc. and removing part of her jaw and all of that trauma. Her cat was older.

Here is a link I found about this type of cancer so it seems like your cat could survive. But I’m wondering why your DVM wants to do radiation if he thinks it’s benign.

Successful Surgical Outcome of Feline Inductive Odontogenic Tumor in Three Cats
 
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castoretpollux

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What about a second opinion ? Do you know if it could be confused with another disease which would not need such an invasive procedure ?
(yes, I'm desperately trying to find another solution...)
 
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castoretpollux

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I'm sorry for what happened but son't blame yourself, you did what you thought was good.
I posted my message below before seeing what you wrote, and as Mani pointed it, FIOT only seems to occur in young cats so I wonder if it could be something else more easily curable...
Does someone know something about amenoblastoma ?
 

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I think it is critical that you have a consult with a specialist. Why do you ask about amenoblastoma? Didn’t they do a biopsy on your cat? I may have misread though.
 
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castoretpollux

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Because I read that FIOT could be mistaken for amenoblastoma, so I was wondering if it was better or the same.
I'm about to go to another vet now.
The biopsy said exactly : "suspected inductive odontogenic tumor"
 
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castoretpollux

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UPDATE : Went to a specialist. He said that it was not a FIOT, it was worse (not sure what, there are several possibilities). He said that the doc who made the biopsy didn't see Cat's mouth, so it was an honest mistake, but for him (as a specialist) there is no doubt this looks very bad.
He thinks that even if Cat got operated, not only would it be harsh for him, but it would come back on the other side within 6 months.
He also said we didn't do anything wrong because this disease is genetic.
The big troubles is that this + diabetes control will be complicated in the weeks to come.
He thinks Cat is a tough guy though (he hasn't eaten much for 3-4 days but he was very very very aggressive towards him and the poor assistants) so he will fight a little longer than "normal" cats.
 

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UPDATE : Went to a specialist. He said that it was not a FIOT, it was worse (not sure what, there are several possibilities). He said that the doc who made the biopsy didn't see Cat's mouth, so it was an honest mistake, but for him (as a specialist) there is no doubt this looks very bad.
He thinks that even if Cat got operated, not only would it be harsh for him, but it would come back on the other side within 6 months.
He also said we didn't do anything wrong because this disease is genetic.
The big troubles is that this + diabetes control will be complicated in the weeks to come.
He thinks Cat is a tough guy though (he hasn't eaten much for 3-4 days but he was very very very aggressive towards him and the poor assistants) so he will fight a little longer than "normal" cats.
Very sorry to hear that… but at least you know now. Did anyone actually do a biopsy? That’s the only way to tell for sure. Your cat is very beautiful, he reminds me of my Merlin, also a big ginger cat.
 
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