Mammary cancer

IMPORTANT: If your cat is in any distress or discomfort, please consult your own vet as your first priority.
Post Reply
Nicyorke79
Frequent Cat Chatter
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2015 9:25 am
No. of cats in household: 3
Location: West Yorkshire

Mammary cancer

Post by Nicyorke79 »

Hi folks. Not been on for a while.

Just wondered has anyway had any experience with mammary cancer? Getting different advice every time I go to the vets. My cat had two lumps removed two months ago and at the time I was told to just monitor and take her for monthly health checks with the nurse. This weekend it was mentioned about having chemo or a full mastectomy - this is the first time a mastectomy has been mentioned as she had a lumpectomy. Chemo was already ruled out as I spoke to the vet that does it and she said it wasn't effective on mammary cancer.

Sorry for waffling. Has anyone been through this?

I am going to ring vets again for a straight answer. But I don't want to put her through more surgery if it's unnecessary :(

Thanks

Nicola x
booktigger
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 2664
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 1:36 pm
No. of cats in household: 3

Re: Mammary cancer

Post by booktigger »

I'm surprised they did a lumpectomy, standard procedure is to remove the full strip. I think your thought of speaking to the vet is a good one. Good luck - how old is she?
Nicyorke79
Frequent Cat Chatter
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2015 9:25 am
No. of cats in household: 3
Location: West Yorkshire

Re: Mammary cancer

Post by Nicyorke79 »

Hi. She's about 7 ish. She's a rescue cat so not 100% sure. No they just removed the lump and surrounding tissue and histology report said they had removed it with narrow margins with no evidence it had spread. I'm thinking about maybe getting her xrayed before putting her through another op.
booktigger
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 2664
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 1:36 pm
No. of cats in household: 3

Re: Mammary cancer

Post by booktigger »

Wow, that's really young for mammary cancer. As far as I'm aware, it doesn't show on x-rays, they are done to see if it has spread to the lungs
Nicyorke79
Frequent Cat Chatter
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2015 9:25 am
No. of cats in household: 3
Location: West Yorkshire

Re: Mammary cancer

Post by Nicyorke79 »

I've spoken to vet who did original surgery and she doesn't feel there's any need for more surgery at this point. The lumps were tiny as I spotted them early so hopefully they won't come back. I'll just have to keep a close eye on her.

Not sure what the average age is for mammary cancer? I seem to be very unlucky with my cats. Not even been two years since I lost my old girl to cancer :(
booktigger
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 2664
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 1:36 pm
No. of cats in household: 3

Re: Mammary cancer

Post by booktigger »

I think the average age is 12. Glad vet is happy with her.
ZeBug
New Cat Chatter
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2017 7:36 pm

Re: Mammary cancer

Post by ZeBug »

Hi.
Saw this post when I was looking into my own problem, and it sounds identical to what I am struggling with.

My cat is also 7, and the mass was also caught really early. (<1cm) I had a lumpectomy done. The mass was removed, but unfortunately they found cancer in the axillary lymph node due to metastasis. (No other metastasis)

So now they want to do a radical unilateral masectomy and chemo, with poor prognosis as it is with feline mammary cancer. My cat is currently asymptomatic, but I know this will progress quickly.

It's a lot of money and pain, and I am also pretty sure i cannot even care for her reactions to the therapy since I am almost never home due to work. In fact, my mom has kept her the week after the lumpectomy, but she adamantly disagrees with 'putting a cat through all that.'

The idea of letting her go hurts, and I hate the idea of not trying everything, but It feels wrong to put her through so much for no garuntee. I could convince my mom to take care of her again, but she lives in another state so I'm not even with her anymore, and have not been for weeks.

I just dunno. Everything I read and hear gives me very little hope

*Currently sobbing up a mess*
LL2017
Returning Cat Chatter
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2017 7:03 pm

Re: Mammary cancer

Post by LL2017 »

My female approx 10 year rescue cat was diagnosed with aggressive mammary cancer in October last year. We had the lumpectomy to confirm, they did a chest X-ray before proceeding with a total mastectomy on one side. Snowy was very poorly afterwards with a heavily infected drain . The lab advised approx 2 am plus aggressive carcinoma . We are now over a year later and she is doing well. The last check up in August 2017 showed clear lungs, which I understand from the vet , would be the indicator of the decease progressing. We were told love her as much as you can whilst she is with us. And that is what we do
Cat Sonna
New Cat Chatter
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2018 6:05 pm

Re: Mammary cancer

Post by Cat Sonna »

Hi guys,

I recently lost my dear furry friend due to a mammary gland (and sweat gland) cancer and would like to share with you my experience with this horrible disease, since I wish I knew all this before I was going though that awful period.
I first notice a small lump on my kitty’s belly in September last year. I was sure it was just some fatty lump, since it was just underneath the skin and very soft. I took her to a vet and he decided to took the tumor out. He told me, that it was probably a benign tumor. My first BIG mistake was, that I didn’t decide to do pathological examination of the tissue. So we went home, hopping that it was just a benign mass, and everything will be just fine. Well, everything was fine for about 5 month, when I discovered another mass on her belly. I took her to the vet, and again they proceed with the operation. Since tumors were much larger the second time around, I knew immediately it was cancer. The pathological report of the removed tissue confirmed it. What I would like to advise you is, before you decide to perform any massive operation on your cat, please take some time to carefully consider all the possible outcomes (if it is cancer, how long will you have with your pet before it progress, are there any alternative remedies you can give to your pet instead, do you have time/money to deal with all the possible consequences etc.). If I knew, what was going to happen later on, I would most certainly not go through with the operation and let my kitty enjoy her last months pain free. All operations are painful, and with the mammary glande cancer there is still very high chance, that even with all additional treatment (chemo, steroids, pain killers, etc.), the disease will gradually progress and eventually kill your dear pet (not in all cases but, VERY high percentage when the masses are larger than 3 cm). I (unfortuanately) decided to try with the operation- removing all visible tumors. Some of them were quite big, some small as a rise grain. Unfortunately my kitty managed somehow to remove three stitches by herself (even though she was wearing an e-collar), and needed additional operation 7 days later. In that time, I already knew, I had made a mistake. I was told, she was going to have at least a couple of months with us, so I hung on to those words. But as you know (or may not know), this type of cancer is so aggressive, that I started to notice new tiny pimples around the incision, just one month after the operation. At that time, we decided not to torture her any more with any additional vet visits, since she was a very shy cat, and vet visits caused her even more stress. The tumors were growing with the speed of light! Seriously, a tumor that was 1mm big the first week, has grown to a size of a golf ball in a month!!! My kitty gradually started to eat less and less, and the vet advised us, to try prednisolone, just to get her appetite back, and to stop cancer from further progressing in her lymph nodes (it was already there). For the first three, four days, she was a new cat – jumping around, eating, drinking… But then again, I could see, that this drug was VERY strong on her, even though I kept her on 1/2 pill of 5mg (Prednidale) tablet, 2 x per day (at that time weighing around 3.5 kg), which was half of the prescribed dosage. After she had her dose, she was such a dope for at least 4 hours, just so absent in general….so I decided to gradually (very important) remove her from steroids, and for the last 4 day days she was on Meloxidyl, which was just to make sure, she was not in any pain. Well, this drug - Moloxidyl is a completely different story, with a series of side effects (like stomach issues, kidney issues), but since we knew her time is coming to an end, we let her on this painkiller.
And my last words of advice - when the time comes to let you kitty go, don’t give her anything to eat, at least 12 hours before you take her to your vet. Cats can (and should) drink, but again, not during the last couple of hours. Nobody told me that, so I let my kitty drink just one or 2 hours before the vet came to euthanize her. When she received the first shot - the tranquilizer, she started to make horrible weowing voices and tried to vomit (even though she only had some water in her belly, and small portion of raw livers- her favorite food, which I gave her at least 10 hours before that). Hearing that made me scared to death, and sooooo angry with myself, that I let her drink/eat anything that day. She passed away just 2 ½ months after the second surgery.

So, please, try to remember the following:
1) Think carefully BEFORE you decide to perform any major operation on your cat, if it is possible, do a biopsy of the tissue to make sure you understand what you will be dealing with;
2) If you DO decide to go through with the operation, first of all make sure your cat is parasites free and in a good condition – meaning she is at least ½ kg (1pound) heavier than normal (she will lose that weight in the first week after the operation);
3) Make sure you are prepared for everything that follows and you have everything prepared at home (disinfectants, creams for better healing of the incision, special post-operative food, clean sheets, towels, all objects that can be easily broken removed – cat will be very dizzy during the first couple of hours after waking up);
4) Try to plan the surgery on Friday afternoon, so you will have plenty of time during the weekend just to carefully monitor your cat;
5) And lastly, when the time comes to let your friend go, DO NOT give her anything to eat at least 12 hours before the euthanasia. She can drink of course, but make sure she drinks at least 3-4 hours before that, since the tranquilizer injection can make her very sick.

I hope my sad experience (and my mistakes) will be helpful to any of you, when dealing with this horrible disease. Feel free to share this post to other pages.

(Written for my dearest friend, who is now watching over me from cat’s heaven. We will never forget you).
AdrianaVV
New Cat Chatter
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2021 5:43 am

Re: Mammary cancer

Post by AdrianaVV »

January 2021:
I found my cat when she was about 2 months old in the street and unfortunately I was scared to spay her because she looked so tiny and thin....so I waited and waited and did it after her first two heats. Now I regret that because I know that's related with mammary cancer.

She's approximately 7 years old now, but her cancer started two years ago (2019). It was a small cyst (I thought it was an hematoma) under one of her nipples. I took her to the vet and he said it looked like how a cancer starts in cats but that she was so young that it was unlikely. I had read already that there's nothing you can do for mammary cancer in cats, so I decided not to even send it to pathology and just take care of her "the natural way". I've given her lots of love, only organic food, a relaxed environment, etc for two years. Then, a year ago she had an infected canine and needed surgery to remove it. On the x-ray they noticed her bone looked like bone cancer. Sent to pathology and they said it was normal. ?!!?

Six months ago a tumor started growing (exactly where the cyst was) and it's been growing incredible fast but she has no symptoms at all. It has been about 5x5x1cm for about six months. Very irregular shape, hard tumor. The nipple looks bigger than the other ones but no secretions or pain. She doesn't lick or even look at it.
I'm giving her organic CBD and it shrunk to about 4x4x1cm. She's doing great but i understand that if it spreads to the lungs or somewhere else she would to die very soon.

I decided, after reading a lot about it, that there's no point in doing surgery or chemo. The suffering of a big surgery, the wound, etc. She hates the vet and being away from her family.

I have pain medicine from her canine surgery and wound ointments in case her tumor opens into a wound. I got her bandages and a post surgery suit. I'm ready for the worst but enjoying every minute with her. I work from home so it's a relief knowing that I'll be here for her.

I believe that death doesn't have to be horrible. We don't understand it and it's ok. I think we all deserve to die at home without fear in the company of our loved ones.

June 2022:
Update! Sofi is still alive and happy. No symptoms whatsoever except for the horrible tumor itself that opened into a wound (fungating tumor they call it). I put her in a pajama at night with zymox 1% steroid for inflammation but during the day I found out is better to leave her without the pajama because it's the only way to keep it really clean. It doesn't matter what I did and how much antibiotics I put on the wound, it always smell weird and looked terrible from being in anaerobic conditions. Now she licks it every morning and then leaves it alone for most of the day. She bleeds a little bit but not too much. She plays, runs, eats...everything normal.

I took her to the vet the first time I removed the pajama and she ate a lot of blood and she vomited what looked like a giant clot. I was horrified! I told the vet what I thought but he said he has never seen something so horrible and that she should probably be put down because she had internal bleeding. I knew that couldn't be the case since she was behaving normal! The next day she ate again the tumor blood but because I saw her I confirmed what happened. I take them to the best and most expensive vet in LA and that's what I got....so trust your gut feeling, do your own research.

Still giving her shrimp, fish, krill oil mixed with organic CBD for cats and making sure she goest to bed at about 8am so she sleeps enough hours.
Post Reply