Lump On Cat, Facing A Decision

[arouetta]

My cat Montressor has a lump right next to his tail. It is roughly the size of a marble. I first found it about 18 months ago, at that time it looked like a tiny, slightly raised mole, so I didn't think anything of it.

I am strongly considering willful ignorance by not pursuing a diagnosis. My reasons:

• Montressor is 18 years old. So there's not much quantity of life left, even if I were to aggressively seek a diagnosis and aggressively treat it.
• The lump is very slow-growing, since it took this long to get this big. Even if it's cancer, at that growth rate it has a good chance of not being what kills him.
• Going to the vet is a very stressful experience for him. And I'm having enough trouble keeping the peace in my house, Montressor coming back smelling of strange animals will likely only worsen his relationship with Midway.
• Quality of life is very important to me. How much quality of life would there be if I'm aggressively pursuing treatment on an 18 year old cat?
• Montressor bounced back pretty quickly from Shadow's death and is not acting the slightest bit unusual. While his arthritis is just now getting to where he has difficulty jumping on the bed (solved by putting a step stool there) he is showing no signs of hiding pain or feeling unwell. He is his normal self, the same behaviors as 2-3 years ago.

But a tiny part of me is wondering if I'm making the right decision. Is there something I'm overlooking that argues for aggressive diagnostics/treatment?

 

[mservant]

These is one part of me says get a vet to look at things as quickly as possible so you know what you are dealing with, and another that is just as you say, telling me not to stress my maturing cat and potentially getting in to all sorts of treatments that will ease my potential guilt but distress them further yet possibly not improving their quality of life. Yes, I have had two more mature cats, one to almost 18 and the other to nearly 22. (One had a severe vet phobia so, like you talk about, visits to the vet were not taken lightly, and the other had a lump at the base of her tail from around the same age as Montressor is now: I went to the vet pretty sure it was going to be something 'nasty' and they told me it was a sebaceous cyst - but that as it was so close to the root of her tail that if it became infected and skin did not heal they would not be able to operate and save her tail or predict outcome. )

Do you have any photographs of Montressor's lump? Or able to describe further? Also, given your cat's age, if you know your vet well might they consider looking at the lump by email initially to minimise distress for Montressor? That was the approach my vets agreed to take with the vet phobic cat I had - I only ever took her in if she was showing critical signs other than when they met her for her first examination at that surgery.

 

[margd]

Are there any mobile vets in your area? If you explain the situation to your regular vet, he or she might even recommend one. That way at least you could the lump examined professionally without putting Montressor through his usual vet trauma.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

margd beat me to it!

But my thinking, over all, is in line with yours. At 18, aggressive treatment might be such a torment that it wouldn't be worth it. However, a proper diagnosis might suggest a palliative regime that would increase her quantity of life later on.

 

[arouetta]

Him, lol.

I'll try to get a picture, but he's got long glossy fur that is black in that spot and the skin is also black. I only found it and then re-found it when I was scratching him at the base of his tail, and touching it doesn't bother him in the slightest. Not even the good scratching I was giving him bothered him.

It's off-center, to the complete right of the tail, so the jumping issue is unlikely to be caused by that as neither of his back legs can quite make it to the top of the bed. Plus, the vet saying a few years back that he had some arthritis that she felt while manipulating his hips, though he's never shown signs before the last couple of months.

I think I would have to find a different vet too, I'm not all that happy with Shadow's last vet visit. Correction, I'm not happy with a lot of that visit.

 

[Lalka]

This lump might not be life threatening...but i think you should know what it is...if it can lead to pain or other problems in the future or if you can ignore it. You ll feel better knowing what it is. A new vet is a good idea when you have a bad vibe. My cat was spayed last week and it wasnt my regular vet (she was on vacation). My regular vet always return my calls to answer questions and this new one had her tech do it. I was speaking with the vet tech on the phone and at every questions she was saying "im gonna go ask her and i ll be back with the answer in 1 minute".

Montressor is 18 years old. So there's not much quantity of life left

You said he is not in pain and other than the arthritis (can be managed at a point with glucosamine) he is a very healthy cat...the quantity of life does not matter...but the quality of the life he has left is very important.

 

[bonepicker]

I think you should find out what it is