fibrosarcoma (non-vaccine related) and amputation

Hi Everyone,

Thank you so much for all of the information that all of you have posted. My
kitty, Merlin, is 8 and I absolutely adore him!!! He has been diagnosed with
a fibrosarcoma in his
front left paw. They did a surgery to remove the tumor but it had dirty
margins and they are recommending amputation...

I am trying to decide if I should amputate or not. And I am trying to
understand his survival rates if I do amputate.

Does anyone have personal experience with this? And if so, may I ask, how
did your kitty do with the amputation? Did he/ she adjust as well as
everyone says kitties do? Did he/ she enjoy a good quality of life for the
rest of his life?

Any personal experience that you would be willing to share would be greatly
appreciated.

Thank you!!!

All the best,
Rebecca

My pet sitter had this done to her cat. I believe he was 12 at the time. He
is doing very well on three legs. I think your cat is young enough to do
well with the surgery. I had a 17 year old cat with a fibrosarcoma in her
hind leg, but opted not to put her through the surgery due to her age (and
other physical problems).
Gail
"celtic kitties" u17735@uwe wrote in message news:5a78edca58f89@uwe...
Hi Everyone,

Thank you so much for all of the information that all of you have posted.
My
kitty, Merlin, is 8 and I absolutely adore him!!! He has been diagnosed
with
a fibrosarcoma in his
front left paw. They did a surgery to remove the tumor but it had dirty
margins and they are recommending amputation...

I am trying to decide if I should amputate or not. And I am trying to
understand his survival rates if I do amputate.

Does anyone have personal experience with this? And if so, may I ask, how
did your kitty do with the amputation? Did he/ she adjust as well as
everyone says kitties do? Did he/ she enjoy a good quality of life for
the
rest of his life?

Any personal experience that you would be willing to share would be
greatly
appreciated.

Thank you!!!

All the best,
Rebecca

I have a 7 year old Siamese mix who at her 2nd rabies shot developed a giant
cell tumor at the injection site. It was fast growing and she ended up
loosing her whole back leg clear up to the hip socket in order to get a
clean margin. Luckily I had a wonderful vet who pushed the lab results
through and the leg was amputated 5 days later if we had waited much longer
it would have invaded her pelvis and I would have lost her. I urge you to
get this done ASAP.

I don't ever regret doing it. Cats adapt so easily to this type of surgery.
It's a bit harder when they have the front let removed but they still do
wonderfully. Unless she's extremely over weight and had other health issues
I would not hesitate to get the surgery done.

Mushkins is a wonderful loving cat who be bops around her like it never
happened. When most people come to visit they are here for quite a while
before they ever realize that she's zipping around on just one back leg. In
her case less then 6 hours after coming home she snuck out of the room I had
her confined in and made her way down the steps like it was nothing at all
to use the litter box even though there was one in the room she was in. The
worst thing to come out of it all is sometimes she gets going too fast on
the kitchen floor and skids out.

The only adaptations I have made at the house is that I keep a chair pulled
out so she can get up to the table to eat and we have a stool in the kitchen
so she can get to the one kitchen window. Other than that she gets around
the house without any problems..

A picture of my sweetie
http://scrappin.myscrappinplace.com/...n/mushkin.html

Celeste



"celtic kitties" u17735@uwe wrote in message news:5a78edca58f89@uwe...
Hi Everyone,

Thank you so much for all of the information that all of you have posted.
My
kitty, Merlin, is 8 and I absolutely adore him!!! He has been diagnosed
with
a fibrosarcoma in his
front left paw. They did a surgery to remove the tumor but it had dirty
margins and they are recommending amputation...

I am trying to decide if I should amputate or not. And I am trying to
understand his survival rates if I do amputate.

Does anyone have personal experience with this? And if so, may I ask, how
did your kitty do with the amputation? Did he/ she adjust as well as
everyone says kitties do? Did he/ she enjoy a good quality of life for
the
rest of his life?

Any personal experience that you would be willing to share would be
greatly
appreciated.

Thank you!!!

All the best,
Rebecca

A person my sig. other works with has a 3-legged cat. She gets around
just fine, and is very happy. I think animals adjust to things like that
far better than humans. They don't think about what they've lost, they
just figure out the best way to use what they have.

I know it's pretty common to amputate with sarcomas, even in humans.
Sarcoma is why one of the Kennedy boys lost a leg.

Good luck with your kitty,

Rhonda

celtic kitties wrote:

I am trying to decide if I should amputate or not. And I am trying to
understand his survival rates if I do amputate.

Does anyone have personal experience with this? And if so, may I ask, how
did your kitty do with the amputation? Did he/ she adjust as well as
everyone says kitties do? Did he/ she enjoy a good quality of life for the
rest of his life?

Thanks Celeste!

I am so glad to hear that she is doing well!!! She is a beautiful kitty :-)

BTW, how did you know that you needed to go to the hip to get a clear margin?
Did you have a CT scan?

I'm afraid to put him through the pain of the surgery if we won't get the
wholoe tumor. Did you also go with the chemo and radiation therapy?

Thanks!
Rebecca

Spot wrote:
I have a 7 year old Siamese mix who at her 2nd rabies shot developed a giant
cell tumor at the injection site. It was fast growing and she ended up
loosing her whole back leg clear up to the hip socket in order to get a
clean margin. Luckily I had a wonderful vet who pushed the lab results
through and the leg was amputated 5 days later if we had waited much longer
it would have invaded her pelvis and I would have lost her. I urge you to
get this done ASAP.

I don't ever regret doing it. Cats adapt so easily to this type of surgery.
It's a bit harder when they have the front let removed but they still do
wonderfully. Unless she's extremely over weight and had other health issues
I would not hesitate to get the surgery done.

Mushkins is a wonderful loving cat who be bops around her like it never
happened. When most people come to visit they are here for quite a while
before they ever realize that she's zipping around on just one back leg. In
her case less then 6 hours after coming home she snuck out of the room I had
her confined in and made her way down the steps like it was nothing at all
to use the litter box even though there was one in the room she was in. The
worst thing to come out of it all is sometimes she gets going too fast on
the kitchen floor and skids out.

The only adaptations I have made at the house is that I keep a chair pulled
out so she can get up to the table to eat and we have a stool in the kitchen
so she can get to the one kitchen window. Other than that she gets around
the house without any problems..

A picture of my sweetie
http://scrappin.myscrappinplace.com/...n/mushkin.html

Celeste

Hi Everyone,

[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
All the best,
Rebecca

Thanks for sharing, Gail. I really appreciate the information.

All the best,
Rebecca

Gail wrote:
My pet sitter had this done to her cat. I believe he was 12 at the time. He
is doing very well on three legs. I think your cat is young enough to do
well with the surgery. I had a 17 year old cat with a fibrosarcoma in her
hind leg, but opted not to put her through the surgery due to her age (and
other physical problems).
Gail
Hi Everyone,

[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
All the best,
Rebecca

Interesting question. One vet student was supposed to euthanize a pet
brought in with a missing front paw or had his paw amputated at the
Penn vet school. But she did not and snuck the pet home. "Tripod" is
his name and I could not tell he was missing a front paw unless he
stood still. He seemed quite happy and healthy.

Wow! really??? Do you happen to know how old Tripod is? My kitty is about
8.5 and I was concerned about the adjustment period.

Thanks for letting me know about Tripod! That males me feel so much better!!!


wrote:
Interesting question. One vet student was supposed to euthanize a pet
brought in with a missing front paw or had his paw amputated at the
Penn vet school. But she did not and snuck the pet home. "Tripod" is
his name and I could not tell he was missing a front paw unless he
stood still. He seemed quite happy and healthy.

--
Message posted via http://www.catkb.com

We didn't have time to do any further testing to see how far it would need
to be amputated. The tumor she had went from a mildly swollen leg to a
massively huge leg in only a couple days time due to excesive fluids from
the lymph nodes. The vet drained the fluid off three times in 5 days to
give her relief while we waited for the lab results. My concern was getting
the leg off before it progressed.

I have a wonderful vet and he told me right out that if it had progressed as
far as the hip socket that he felt the only right thing to do was to not
wake her up from surgery since it meant that if he closed her up that she
would die a horribly painful death from the cancer not from the surgery.
He's a wonderful orthopedic vet and knows what he is doing so I told him to
treat her if he were his own.

He ended up taking the leg up to within 2cm of the hip socket. He told me
he's done the surgery on a couple dozen cats over the years and some live 2
or 3 years and the cancer returns and he's had some that have made it to the
old age of 12 or 13 without any recurrances. With Mushkins the giant cell
tumor was an oddity since it's usually one that occurs more often in dogs
than cats thats what had the vets baffled when the first opened the leg to
do the biopsy.

I choose not to put her through chemo or radiation and she's been fine ever
since. The only thing I do is she gets an all over massage nightly to check
for any new bumps or lumps that way if one occurs we can get her into the
vets ASAP. She also gets no more vaccinations what so ever.

Celeste


"celtic kitties" u17735@uwe wrote in message news:5a797cff8986d@uwe...
Thanks Celeste!

I am so glad to hear that she is doing well!!! She is a beautiful kitty
:-)

BTW, how did you know that you needed to go to the hip to get a clear
margin?
Did you have a CT scan?

I'm afraid to put him through the pain of the surgery if we won't get the
wholoe tumor. Did you also go with the chemo and radiation therapy?

Thanks!
Rebecca

Spot wrote:
I have a 7 year old Siamese mix who at her 2nd rabies shot developed a
giant
cell tumor at the injection site. It was fast growing and she ended up
loosing her whole back leg clear up to the hip socket in order to get a
clean margin. Luckily I had a wonderful vet who pushed the lab results
through and the leg was amputated 5 days later if we had waited much
longer
it would have invaded her pelvis and I would have lost her. I urge you to
get this done ASAP.

I don't ever regret doing it. Cats adapt so easily to this type of
surgery.
It's a bit harder when they have the front let removed but they still do
wonderfully. Unless she's extremely over weight and had other health
issues
I would not hesitate to get the surgery done.

Mushkins is a wonderful loving cat who be bops around her like it never
happened. When most people come to visit they are here for quite a while
before they ever realize that she's zipping around on just one back leg.
In
her case less then 6 hours after coming home she snuck out of the room I
had
her confined in and made her way down the steps like it was nothing at all
to use the litter box even though there was one in the room she was in.
The
worst thing to come out of it all is sometimes she gets going too fast on
the kitchen floor and skids out.

The only adaptations I have made at the house is that I keep a chair
pulled
out so she can get up to the table to eat and we have a stool in the
kitchen
so she can get to the one kitchen window. Other than that she gets around
the house without any problems..

A picture of my sweetie
http://scrappin.myscrappinplace.com/...n/mushkin.html

Celeste

Hi Everyone,

[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
All the best,
Rebecca

celtic kitties via CatKB.com wrote:
Wow! really??? Do you happen to know how old Tripod is? My kitty is about
8.5 and I was concerned about the adjustment period.

Thanks for letting me know about Tripod! That males me feel so much better!!!

I don't know how old Tripod was at that time or I've forgotten. I
should add he had a some hippity-hop motion to him with one front paw.
Still I did not notice until he stopped.

I gather they are worried about metastasis with dirty edges? And there
is not any research on survival rates? Can't they help you out with a
little more info?

I gather the vets don't have too much to say. Kitties adjust well and
yours is only just entering the mature stage. If you keep him
exercised, he should do fine. If your kitty likes to paint, there is a
web site for cats that paint you know, is this his dominant painting
paw?