My cat Bear has a bump on his leg

jesirose · 04-09-2008, 10:03 PM

First off, he has a vet appointment first thing tomorrow morning.

Okay, so when my husband and I got home today we went to pet Bear, he always waits on his kitty condo for daddy to come home. Hubby petted him and immediately felt a lump on his left hind leg. It is very high up, on his side almost. It is about the size of a dime. It is very hard, and does not seem to hurt when we touch/poke it (so we think it is not an injury). Neither of us had noticed this before.

Bear does not go outside, but we do have a dog Sadie who does. I would think if Bear had been bitten by some bug it would hurt so I don't think it was because of that. We checked the other cat Felix and he has no bumps. There are no other bumps on Bear. He did have his first flea medication this month but it was on his back, nowhere near the bump.

I'm going nuts now worrying because he is my baby. Felix is more my husband's cat and Bear is my little boy and if anything hurts him I will be heartbroken. I'm having a really bad day and this just made it worse.

My husband says one of his cats in childhood had many benign tumors all over, and was fine. Hopefully that is all this is, but does anyone have any other ideas as to what this could be?

Willowy · 04-09-2008, 10:41 PM

Was he recently vaccinated? Vaccines can cause lumps in cats, and sometimes those lumps can turn into cancer (vaccine-site sarcoma, if you want to Google it). I've decided not to vaccinate my cats any more, since they don't have to be boarded or licensed, and those are the reasons I have to vaccinate my dogs. All of my cats have had at least 3 years worth of vaccines, so I figure their immunities are as "trained" as much as they can be. And overvaccination causes many other health problems in cats, too, more so than in dogs (that I've seen anyway). Sorry, I'm rambling again......

. Anyway, that's the only thing I can think of. I hope the vet can figure it out with a minimum of fuss and bother, and that it's nothing bad.

jesirose · 04-09-2008, 10:44 PM

Yes he was! That is the spot where he was vacced. It was about 2 weeks ago. I didn't think of that. Our pup just had hers and I forgot that the cats had their recently too.

ETA: My husband asks is this something that goes away or is it like regular cancer? I am googling it but the sites I found right away don't tell me what the sarcoma is, just what causes it :/

Willowy · 04-09-2008, 11:16 PM

Usually the lumps go away on their own after a month or so. If it does turn into cancer, it will need to be removed. This is a cancer you want to catch right away, as it is a very aggressive cancer and it can spread quickly. This is one reason vets have been vaccinating cats on their legs instead of in the scruff----the leg can be removed if the cancer has spread. You might want to have a discussion with your vet about future vaccinations---once a cat has developed a lump from a vaccination, his chances of getting vaccine-site sarcoma are higher.

jesirose · 04-09-2008, 11:58 PM

He got the shot on 3-17 so it has been just over 3 weeks. It wasn't there before, we would have noticed it before.

I am going to talk to the vet tomorrow, I think this is probably what it is. We will get it taken care of right away if it is. Do you mean a month from when they appear or from the date of the shot?

Since Bear is indoor only I think he will only get Rabies from now on. We almost didn't get the feline luek. but we thought a vaccine would be better than not because it is supposed to keep him safe. :/ My vet also said the rabies only has to be done every 3 years, not every year.

jesirose · 04-10-2008, 08:21 AM

Our vet's office got hit by a tornado.
*headdesk*

We went to another vet since ours was closed due to no power and no windows, and he said it was scar tissue. He took a sample of it and did not find any cancer cells - which makes me so relieved. He gave some medicine to reduce inflamation and said if the lump does not go away in 30 days to take him to our vet to have it removed.

I feel so much better but I will keep a close eye on this and see what happens. Thanks guys!

Willowy · 04-10-2008, 11:10 PM

Sounds great! I'm glad to hear no cancer cells were detected. Yes, rabies vaccines are approved for 3-year use. Some states do not recognize 3-year validity, but if your vet said it's good, your state probably does. Like I said, I'm not going to vaccinate my cats anymore (I'm still deciding about rabies vaccine), but even when I did I never gave the housecats the FeLeuk vaccine. It's just not necessary for indoor cats. The risk from the vaccine is greater than the risk of them contracting FeLeuk. Some studies show that adult cats have an 89% natural immunity to FeLeuk anyway, and the vaccine only confers 85% immunity.

The core vaccines (FVCRP combo) are modified live vaccines, and studies have shown that modified-live vaccines given after 6 months of age confer immunity for at least 7 years, and most likely for life. After all, when was the last time you had an MMR vaccine, or even a tetanus shot? I think tetanus vaccine is recommended to be given to most adults every 10 years.....makes you wonder why they think pets need their vaccines more often. Here's a link if you want to do more research: http://www.critteradvocacy.org/

jesirose · 04-10-2008, 11:48 PM

Thanks Willowy.

We are going to keep a close eye on it because I think the vet's idea that he got bitten on the same spot he got vacc'd is a bit iffy. I was so thrilled to hear it wasn't cancer tho.

After his meds my husband thinks the bump is a bit smaller, and I'm inclined to agree.