First I have to say that I have a vet appointment at 3:45 (Pacific Time) this afternoon, but in the meantime I'm worrying a lot so if anyone has ever dealt with this before I'm curious to know what your experiences were.
I have a 4 month old kitten who has had URI problems since the day someone found her. 2 night ago she was hiding, didn't come out to eat when I fed the cats and seemed tired. She had watery eyes, but this is normal for her, but since she was acting weird otherwise we called the emergency vet to see if they thought it was an emergency. The vet told us to take her temperature if we could, and base our decision on whether or not she had a fever accompanying the other signs. We took her temp and it shot right up to 106.2 degrees. (she felt warm too but my cats like to lay on heating vents so I had hoped that was why she felt so hot.) Needless to say, we rushed around, got her in a carrier and headed off the the vet that's 45 minutes away. By the time we got there her temp had dropped to 104. She was kept overnight. She was given something to reduce the fever, clavamox for a secondary bacterial infection (the vet said her nose had discharge indicative of a bacterial infection) and some anti-inflammatory medicine.
When I picked her up yesterday morning her temp was completely back to normal and she seemed MUCH more alert and active. She acted normal and playful all day long, but then when I fed them last night I noticed that she seemed to be having trouble eating. She WAS eating though. In fact, she was practically inhaling her food (she hadn't eaten the night before and the vet said she only picked on some food that morning). It just looked like she was having problems chewing. She didnt' look like she was in pain, but she did look uncomfortable. About an hour later I was petting her and I noticed what felt like a lump on her jawline. I honestly can't tell if its on her jaw, her cheek or her neck. She's still pretty tiny so I don't know if thats why its hard to tell. It just seems to be in that general area. It doesn't bother her when I touch it - in fact she was purring and trying to play as I was trying to figure out what it is. Its on the side of her face that seemed to be giving her problems as she was eating though.
I didn't notice the lump before last night. I guess I could have missed it, but shouldn't the emergency vet have noticed it if it was there the night before?
I called and got her an appointment for this afternoon but in the meantime I've been googling to see what it can be and I really need to stop doing stuff like that because now I'm practically convinced that she has cancer and is going to die. I'm aware that it COULD be cancer, but of course I found 500 other things it could be too. I'm concerned that it appeared less than a day after she spiked a high fever. She also had 3 vaccinations last Friday (Felv, FVRCP and rabies - the only one she hadn't gotten before was the rabies. the others were boosters.) The emergency vet said that her fever could have been related to a vaccine reaction, but was unlikely because of the URI symptoms she also had.
So while I know no one can tell me what this is for sure, and if anyone here has had this experience before, it could be very different from the next person's, but if you ever found a lump on your cat in that general area would you mind telling me what it turned out to be for you?
I have a 4 month old kitten who has had URI problems since the day someone found her. 2 night ago she was hiding, didn't come out to eat when I fed the cats and seemed tired. She had watery eyes, but this is normal for her, but since she was acting weird otherwise we called the emergency vet to see if they thought it was an emergency. The vet told us to take her temperature if we could, and base our decision on whether or not she had a fever accompanying the other signs. We took her temp and it shot right up to 106.2 degrees. (she felt warm too but my cats like to lay on heating vents so I had hoped that was why she felt so hot.) Needless to say, we rushed around, got her in a carrier and headed off the the vet that's 45 minutes away. By the time we got there her temp had dropped to 104. She was kept overnight. She was given something to reduce the fever, clavamox for a secondary bacterial infection (the vet said her nose had discharge indicative of a bacterial infection) and some anti-inflammatory medicine.
When I picked her up yesterday morning her temp was completely back to normal and she seemed MUCH more alert and active. She acted normal and playful all day long, but then when I fed them last night I noticed that she seemed to be having trouble eating. She WAS eating though. In fact, she was practically inhaling her food (she hadn't eaten the night before and the vet said she only picked on some food that morning). It just looked like she was having problems chewing. She didnt' look like she was in pain, but she did look uncomfortable. About an hour later I was petting her and I noticed what felt like a lump on her jawline. I honestly can't tell if its on her jaw, her cheek or her neck. She's still pretty tiny so I don't know if thats why its hard to tell. It just seems to be in that general area. It doesn't bother her when I touch it - in fact she was purring and trying to play as I was trying to figure out what it is. Its on the side of her face that seemed to be giving her problems as she was eating though.
I didn't notice the lump before last night. I guess I could have missed it, but shouldn't the emergency vet have noticed it if it was there the night before?
I called and got her an appointment for this afternoon but in the meantime I've been googling to see what it can be and I really need to stop doing stuff like that because now I'm practically convinced that she has cancer and is going to die. I'm aware that it COULD be cancer, but of course I found 500 other things it could be too. I'm concerned that it appeared less than a day after she spiked a high fever. She also had 3 vaccinations last Friday (Felv, FVRCP and rabies - the only one she hadn't gotten before was the rabies. the others were boosters.) The emergency vet said that her fever could have been related to a vaccine reaction, but was unlikely because of the URI symptoms she also had.
So while I know no one can tell me what this is for sure, and if anyone here has had this experience before, it could be very different from the next person's, but if you ever found a lump on your cat in that general area would you mind telling me what it turned out to be for you?