Help! My cat is Sick!

[tobya14]

My 14 yr old cat has a fast growing pimplelike growth on her nose. The vets do not know what it is and of course want to take it off. Antibiotics did nothing. She still eats and plays but I know it annoys her. It is very large and causes her to sneeze. Surgery is expensive and the growth may return. She is 14 and I don't want her to suffer thru a surgery. I am not sure what to do.

[wvliz]

Is it possible for your Veterinarian to take a small sample to be analyzed and find out whether it is benign? This might be cheaper than surgery and give you peace of mind if it is harmless. If you absolutely cannot afford this or surgery and the cat still has good quality of life with the growth, the only other thing to do is keep a close eye on her and leave it alone. If you do decide to go through with surgery, be sure to get the bloodwork done beforehand (it may be required anyway) to make sure her organs are functioning well enough to tolerate the anesthesia. Either way, you have a hard decision to make... let us know how it goes, I hope your kitty is better soon!

[tobya14]

She has had bloodwork done and it looks great considering her age. The cells they retrieved (with a needle) showed a massive infection. The antibiotics did not work. I was thinking a different type of antibiotic, maybe it is anerobic or something. I would say she is happy, but that small planet on her nose has to be annoying.

[amo4716]

my kitty had a similar growth on the side of her nose, right in between the inner corner of her eye and the side of her nose. she's 11 now and had it removed with surgery a year ago. she actually had it for years, no idea how long because it was always "just there," but i'm thinking somewhere around 4-5 years. anyway, it started small but then gradually grew over the years. we thought it was a pimple at first and tried popping it with a pin to see if anything came out. nothing really did, so we let it go.

then, it started to grow hair. yes, hair, like it was a normal part of her body. she had been to the Veterinarian regularly for her yearly check-ups, and he kept assuring us that if it wasn't bothering her, no need to remove it. but then we decided to have surgery because she was itching at it all the time. my cat is a burmese with the very smooshed face, and she has allergies that make her eyes water all the time, producing "eye boogies." it was really starting to agitate her, so it was removed and biopsied.

i can't remember the exact name of what it was, but it was something like papaloma- not sure about the beginning of the name, but it definetly had an "oma" at the end. nothing bad, just a weird skin growth.

she's been fine ever since.

if surgery costs are a major issue for you, consider going to a Veterinarian school. my other kitty, who is 3, was diagnosed with two auto-immune diseases. she has been receiving treatment at the virginia tech Veterinarian. med school, and i couldn't be happier. the care she gets is amazing, and the costs are extremely reasonable- only $1500 for a week in the ICU. if you can, try for a state school because the costs are much lower than a private Veterinarian school. ask your regular Veterinarian if there is a speciality hospital he would recommend.

hope this helps and that your baby is ok!!