Hi,

My 13 year old cat JJ suffered trauma at the vets, on his last visit there which was 30th April I noticed he had a bump on his head between his left eye and his ear when I collected him, this was not there in the morning?

The lump has slowly got bigger and has a rounded appearance. I was so hoping it was a cyst or abcess. It is warm to touch and does not appear to be causing any discomfort to him. It is now approx 2.5 cm in size. If you rub the lump he stretches his head out and his back leg starts going as if to scratch it himself. I can feel a pinacle on the lump and it also feels like it has a ridge in it.

I really do not want to take him to the vet as he suffered badly there and it has taken four months for him to 'come round' I feel a trip to the vets will really set him back.

Hopefully somone can come forward with some helpful suggestions, how do you draw a cyst, how can I tell what it could be?

Thank you all for your help, I look forward to your replies.

Jane

what about calling the vet out to you? or getting some ACP from the vet to chill him out a bit (but there are risks with ACP with elderly cats) honestly you're not going to get anything more than... if you are worried about it go to the vets. i'm not really sure why you didn't ask the vets immediately after you noticed it when you picked him up!n when you say a 'trauma' what exactly happened? DO NOT TRY TO DRAW THE LUMP! it may not be a cyst it could be a haematoma or a tumor or even a parasite. you risk really causing a lot of problems as well as injuring your cat. Please ring your vets and see what options they offer you for your elderly and scared cat. if they won't help you then call round and see if another vets might.

JJ originally went to the vet for two teeth to be removed. The vets anethetised him for this and he has never been right since. He went back to the vet and they anethetised him again as they said he had a lump at the back of his throat (this subsequently disappeared by the time they looked) although I had asked them to re-assess him and contact me first which they did not do. A vet nurse friend of mine toldd me that if a cat gets stressed while being injected it can cause a heart attack which results in brain damage. this is what has happened to J. After this he started wetting himself and running away, he did not come back of his own accord. He is now half the weight he was but improving all the time. He was an extrovert cat but is now the opposite. It has been a long road to get him even to where we are now and I cannot tell you how happy I am just to have him better, I do not think he will ever be the way he was before. I did point out the lump to the vet and they just said they did not know what it was. I spent £468.00 at this vets, they were pretty useless. they could not also understand that he was wetting himself out of stress and wanted to run a few more tests as they insisted he had a urine infection. He is clean again now, there was no urine infection at all, like most owners I know my cat well enough.

I have read on a forum that cats can get lumps out of trauma or stress.

To add further problems, I myself have been the victim of severe stress and have had to stop working, so funding the vet is also rather difficult at the moment, although if he needs it he will have it of course.

Does drawing the cyst means putting a needle in and draining it???
If it does, this is against the law! (uk)

The law basically says, that you may treat your animals at home, so long as you are not doing more harm than good. But the only person allowed to doing anything invasive (injections/operations) is a vet or someone that has been instructed to by a vet.
Whilst on the subject, it is also against the law to not take an animal to vet if it it will cause it undue suffering.

I agree with EB, you could not possibly know that it is a cyst. And it could be something else.

If you are not working, there are orgnaisations that can help you with the cost of vet treatment, if you are on some sort of benifit, then try the PDSA or the bluecross. Other organistations that may be able to help is your local cats protection or your local RSPCA.

if it's acne or a abscess you can draw it with warm rag compression. but if it's a sebaceous cyst then if it bursts it could continue filling back up over and over again OR grow to a certain size and do nothing. OR need to be removed. don't stick anything in it or squeeze it you could press any infection into the tissue surrounding and make it worse.

Thanks for your replies, first of all can I make something perfectly clear (Helz) I am not in the habit of performing surgery on any of my animals of whom all are perfectly well looked after and please do not tell me about the law either, your reply was not really helpful and was rather extreme. I am not drawing any benefits and therefore organisations do not want to know (its the all or nothing UK!)and I have to pay full price and that is it.

Thank you Erbslin for your information which is helpful. I will continue to monitor the lump and have no intention of touching it. My thread was put out just in case there was anything that could be done or discovered about it. I will probably take him to the vet shortly if the lump does not erupt on its own over the next few days.

If you read my post again chunky, you will see the reason I mentiond the law, was because I thought drawing an absess means to drain it with a needle.
You may find my post extreme, the mention of surgery was in order to give my response in its completeness, I was not accusing you of operating on your pet.
The infomation I posted about the law also backs you up, as I have highlighted the fact that you are allowed to treat your animals at home.

You are wrong about the fact it is all or nothing in the UK, as I said blue cross and PDSA offer help to those on benifits, but your local cats protection and RSPCA may help if you explain your situation. You can get the numbers for your local contacts by phoning their head office, but I guess this would be unlikley with your attitude.

You seem to get very deffensive, have I touched a nerve? If not, try lerning some manners, everything I posted was relevant and I have not accused you of doing anything. If you don't want advice/infomation, I suggest you don't post threads asking for it.

Thank you Helz, I contacted the RSPCA and advised of my situation they say they cannot help, never mind it was worth a try. The reason I took umbridge at your reply was because I felt it totally inappropriate to be advising of the law when all I wanted was some friendly support from like minded people. Details about the law in this country implied to me that you thought I was going to do something drastic and is also as I said before, rather extreme when this is meant to be a helpful/supportive forum. This also did nothing to constructively help with my question. I had hoped to maybe discover information about what this lump could be which would have helped with the situation. For your information I am one of the most polite and nicest people you could ever meet, manners are at the forefront of everything I do. As this is not a forum for back and forth argument I will not be responding to any further mail on this subject. I wish you well.

TBF telling you the law could have been helz way of showing that they actually care, i mean if helz didnt and you tried to help your cat and caused it a little bit of harm and you then took the cat back to the vets and one uppity veterninary nurse thought you where abusing your cat (im not saying you have/will/or are inhumane enough to do that) they have a right to report it.

TBH a lump could be anything though. My girlfriend often says to me "Iv'e got a lump" and i think "OH S33T BREAST CANCER!" and it turns out to be a heat lump or something.

BUt again the best advice is take your cat the vets elderly cats need more care than what they used to (obviously) and being that you and (im guessing) not many people in here are actually trained vets then its better to be safer than sorry and take him in.

I may be going off the subject slightly, and may possibly upset some vets.

Although we all love our pets dearly - be very carefull when it comes to paying the bill.

I had to have my lovely Siamese, Mindy put to sleep a few weeks ago. It cost me nearly £300. I was charged for an overnight stay. She was only in there for 2 hours.

I sent an e mail to their Directors, asking them to clarify their fees.

I got an instant response in detail, also saying that they had OVERCHARGED me.

So beware!