Pam,
Good to hear from you. Sounds like it's been busy there. I'm so glad Purrsy's tumor was not malignant. It's only money. It's only money...... Try to tell yourself that. lol. I've had some bad vet bills lately too. I figure 2002 and so far this year are averaging at least over 500 a month. I don't really want to figure it out!
take care,
tonya
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Purrsy stopped eating for a week before her surgery with Amy was scheduled, and her ear started oozing truly stinky stuff again, so I took her in and Amy was horribly pessimistic - Purrsy's liver numbers were elevated and Amy thought the tumor was much bigger and down into the jaw, was surely malignant after all(she felt the previous biopsy samples that showed it wasn't malignant weren't from deep enough into the ear) and there appeared to be a split in her palate that no-one had seen before. When they drew blood, Purrsy sneezed what Amy thought was pus. She didn't actually say she didn't want to do the surgery now, but kept emphasizing that she'd lose "half her face" and would probably be paralyzed on that side of her face, and what kind of life would that be . . .
Amy isn't usually negative unless it's warranted, so I left feeling very depressed, but decided I at least wanted an opi! nion from the expensive referral vets, even if I couldn't afford their surgery. Amy called them while I was still at her office, but they said they couldn't see us that day (a Friday), but to call them myself and schedule an appointment. I called them when I got home, and although at first they said they couldn't see Purrsy till Monday, they changed their minds after they heard her story. We got a 1 p.m. appointment, and right from the start Dr. Basinger was very optimistic. He felt from her history and symptoms there was a good chance the tumor WASN'T malignant, especially since the initial biopsy showed it wasn't - he said a 50-50 chance. He'd had a cancellation, he said, and was willing to operate right away. Best case scenario was that it wasn't even a tumor, just severe inflammation, but he woudn't know for sure about that until he went in. The !
surgical solution was to be the same if a tumor, whether malignant or not - total ear canal ablation, or complete removal ! of the ear canal. I took a big swallow at the $800-$1,100 quote and said go for it.
Purrsy came through wonderfully, ate during the night of her surgery, and came home the next day. There was a tumor, filling the whole ear canal but contained within it, and lots of inflammation and pus below the ear canal. They got rid of all that, and took biopsy material from below the ear canal and from the now-healed site in the side of her neck where the tumor had previously drained from, just to be sure all areas were checked.
After five days we got our new biopsy result back - NON-MALIGNANT! It was a ceruminous gland adenoma, a non-malignant tumor of the wax-producing glands in the ear (this tumor CAN also be malignant, so Purrsy was very fortunate for a positive outcome).
She still has two ears, in case anyone is wondering, although one now looks bigger and doesn't really match the normal ear (it will look better when her fur grows in -she was shaved totally on one side of! her head). She just doesn't have the insides of her ear anymore and the "earhole" is sewn shut and will remain closed up after the stitched are removed.
The split in her palate seems to be either a birth defect or perhaps from some old injury. The stuff she sneezed was apparently just due to the fact that she appears to be a chronic URI kitty, sneezing in particular when she eats canned food or drinks water, sometimes sneezing it down her nose. I'm going to have all that checked when Purrsy gets her stitches out - may have to do with pressure in her ear (or non-pressure in her non-ear!).
I thought I'd report on this happy outcome in full so that anyone else who has a kitty with an ear problem in future will have this in archives to refer to, plus it is a testament to the fact that even the best of vets doesn't always know for sure what is going on. I trust Amy very much, she is very good - but she was wrong about Purrsy and I'm glad I didn't give up based on what Amy ! felt. In part I think she felt that way because she was treating at the time another kitty from whom she'd removed an ear tumor. It wasn't evident outwardly, like Purrsy's - the cat had chronic discharge and inflammation, and when Amy operated to relieve that, she found what turned out to be a malignant melanoma in the ear. That kitty was not doing well at the time Amy saw Purrsy, and in fact some time in the following three or four days had to be put to sleep. I am sure that's why she was so pessimistic about Purrsy, but Purrsy didn't have the same thing.
Now Purrs is one of my most expensive kitties - $1500 so far, and haven't even fixed her yet (yes, she is intact, and has been rabidly in heat twice so far, calling for a boyfriend!) Waiting for full recovery from the ear surgery before fixing her.
We have had about $500 donated towards her surgery so far. During the same week she had her surgery, Jeff had a dental and they found and removed a tumor from his mouth - ! thank God it was another non-malignancy, although we were very worried while waiting for results of that biopsy as mouth tumors are almost always malignant, and Louis, a scaredy boy, spent 5 days on IV's at vet's because of an apparent intestinal obstruction (still not sure what - all we got was hair, after barium pills and ultimately an enema). He's still skinny and not quite right but only 5 years old - not sure what's going on and continue to watch him. Add to that Cinnamon, one of my other older ones, losing some weight and needing a workup and Merlin, my oldest rescue, now in end-stage congestive heart failure as well as kidney failure, a couple of retests on recent rescues, spay/neuter for the USC ceiling kitties (3 adopted, 2 to go) and test on one who came out of my drainpipes (a really sweet bla!
ck apparently neutered longhaired black male) and my vet bills for past month or so were around $3,000!
But I am thankful all my kitties are more or less OK now, exce! pt perhaps Merl, who is holding his own on atenolal and lasix and fluids, but eating only a few licks of salmon or tuna juice. Going to try the liver shake today.
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now
