We have another challenge with the cat that I've been having trouble writing about. Last Friday, Dr Randy discovered a lump on her cheek. It's a little hard to detect, but he has a way of greeting Juliet that led him to discover it immediately. And once you notice it, you can't not feel it.
It's hard looking into J's mouth with all those sharp teeth flashing around, but Dr R discovered an infection behind the lump, near a tooth. So she's on antibiotics -- banana-flavored of all things -- yum.
Neither of the two possibilities we've discussed so far are attractive. It could be a tumor, and a fairly fast growing one at that, given that Dr. R didn't notice it two weeks earlier. As easy as it will be to make decisions in that eventuality, I'm not looking forward to my heart's reaction.
The other possibility is a rotten tooth. In a younger cat, this problem would be easy to resolve -- you'd put the animal under, pull the tooth, clean everything out, and wake her up. The danger with Juliet is that she might not wake up. For years (five? seven?) we've considered her too old to put under anaesthesia.
After giving it some thought, if it's not a tumor, I'd like to be a little aggressive with treatment and see if there are some alternatives to putting her all the way under to get the tooth out. I'll know more this Friday at our follow-up.
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1 comment:
Good luck with that. We had to put our 13 year-old dog down in April. It's never an easy thing with a beloved family "member" who just happens to have fur.
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