18 year old cat-need opinions?Mr. Chester has been with us for 18 1/2 years. He is suffering old age cat diseases. His kidneys are failing, he had 3 teeth pulled last year. Now he has skin cancer on his ear. He never goes more than 20 feet away from the house. Last week he was missing for 5 days. I thought he had gone to kitty heaven. No, he had just lost his way. I had put an ID tag on him about 3 weeks ago, thank God for that. He seems ok for the most part.
What I was wondering is what to do about his skin cancer. He has an ugly growth on his ear. I don't know if it hurts. My vet has said that my only option would be to remove his ear. I would like him to live out his life with as little discomfort as possible. So I wonder...does it hurt, should I have his ear removed or just make him as comfortable as possible for the remainder of his life.
Thank you all for your great answers, as soon as I figure out how to pick the best answer you'll know who I selected
Posted by Monique
Im sorry but a cat that old is probably in a lot of distress of just old age and distress the vets cant even see. My loved cat is family to me even though he is mean i love him but if he was that old the best thing to do is get his stress over and let him fly to kitty heaven. But yes i would remove the ear if he was a yound cat which he isnt.
Posted by Bozema
Have an honest discussion with your vet about how realistic it is to do that kind of surgery on a very geriatric cat in kidney failure. The vet may be laying out all the choices for you but leaving the decision to you - most vets will do that. It really depends on your cat's overall health status - if it is early kidney failure and your cat tolerated anesthesia well for the dental extractions last year, maybe it makes sense. But if kidney failure is advanced, it doesn't make sense to me. Either way, blood work and an evaluation should be done before you do anything.
Posted by Its.just.me!
I would say that if your cat seems like he is generally happy, his ear probably doesn't hurt him. If you are still willing to care for him at his old age and are prepared for surgeries to keep him healthy, then go for it!
However, if he howls a lot, or seems like he is in a lot of pain most of the time, then it may not be a bad idea to go ahead and have him put to sleep. He does not need to suffer; you obviously care for him alot, and going through the suffering would be so much heartache for both you and him.
Posted by LM
This is a tough call.
Last year I rescued a geriatric cat with the same kind of cancer (it's called squamous cell carcinoma) on his ears. We ended up having both ears amputated, and he died of unrelated heart / kindney failure six months later. One of his ears was already severely disfigured by the cancer when we got him and so had to be amputated immediately. After it was amputated, it turned out that there were 'undifferentiated' cancer cells underneath the skin surface. This caused fluid to build up under the skin, which we had to drain out every few days for the remainder of his life. Presumabley the reason the cancer had reached this stage was because it had been left untreated for so long by his previous owners.
The other ear just had the beginnings of a few tumors when we got him. We were advised by one vet not to bother amputating that ear because of his age. Over the course of a few weeks, we noticed that they were spreading rapidly and starting to ulcerate (break open) and that he rubbed at them a lot. So we had that ear amputated as well. He recovered from this quickly. The most difficult part was that he had to wear an elizabethan collar while the stitches were in (in your case, you would need to keep the cat indoors during this period). Overall, I think he was more comfortable after the ear was gone. The flesh on a cat's ear is very thin so it heals very quickly and easily.
Basically, the skin tumors can develop and cause complications fairly quickly, so it can be worth it to amputate even on an older animal. After my experience, if I ever had a cat with this problem again, I wouldn't even think twice about doing the surgery immediately.
On the other hand, if the cat is already very old and sick, the anesthesia for the surgery can be dangerous. It really depends on how far along his kidney failure is.
If your cat is getting confused when outside, you might consider keeping him indoors. This might help slow down the cancer too, as it is caused by sun exposure.
Orignal From: Kidney Disease: 18 year old cat-need opinions?
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