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

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?