oh dear. Keep us posted :(

Karen

Oh, Linda that sucks!  :(  I hope Cornell proves it isn't...

Wow.  I was afraid of this.  Please treat this as aggressively as you can
afford.

Aggie had such a sarcoma.  The first vet took it out, not believing what it
was.  It was a delayed reaction to a rabies vaccine as well, possibly as
long as 3 years (with 13 cats I can't remember everything quite as precisely
as I'd like).

We went to U Penn, had prophylactic chemo while waiting for surgery, and
then radical amputation of the leg and the hip.  She got along quite well
with 3 legs, and then succumbed less than a year later to what could have
been latent FIP.  Or, in fact it could have been a metastasis (although they
are rare for this cancer).

I wish you and your cat well.  Will you please continue to update us?  Or at
least me personally :)

batsee@"deleteme"bcpl.net

remo

Linda, I hope this isn't the case. We'll be keeping our fingers
crossed for you, and sending lots of luck!

Karen M.

Hi Linda,

Is this Betsy? :(((

Can't make a difinitive diagnosis without a biopsy.  But before you go that
route, you might want to consider ultrasounds.  By imaging the lump, the
margins can be accurately determined as well its invasiveness.  This will
show your vet how wide the surgical excision needs to be to remove the mass
entirely without cutting unnecessarily wide margins. Also, many tumors and
lumps have areas that are necrotic - which if biopsied can lead to inclusive
results.  These areas can be detected with ultrasounds and avoided so that
the more diagnostic areas can biopsied.

Where is the lump?  Rabies vaccines should be given in right rear leg as
distally as possible.

I hope its just a cyst.  Please keep me posted.

Good luck.

Phil