Agatha's surgery report
Nov. 2nd, 2005 08:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nlbarberAgatha seems to have come through the surgery to remove the lump in fine shape, though she's not looking her best. She has about a 2-1/2 inch long incision, ugly and stapled together, in the middle of a huge shaved region of her side. On the other side, there's a big baggy area of skin where the subcutaneous fluids they gave her because of the kidney disease all settled out in the region behind her front leg. She's moving around well and eating some, but she does seem uncomfortable--she moves from one spot to another as if she can't find the right spot to settle in for a nap. I have an Elizabethan collar in reserve if I see signs that she is worrying at the incision, but my one attempt to get her to wear it spooked both her and Fish. (Fish started growling and hissing at her as if she had been transformed into Frankencat.)
The vet's report was that the lump was pretty encapsulated, but that inside looked possibly like necrotic tissue that definitely needs to be analyzed. The report should be back from the lab early next week. She did think that she got all the visible tumor, but said that if this should be a fibrosarcoma, it could've had microscopic tendrils that are impossible to trace and excise. Doing a little googling, it appears that cats fairly often get fibrosarcomas induced by vaccinations, and this lump is certainly in a likely spot to be that. We'll see when the biopsy results come back.
In the meantime, I have 4 syringes of pain medicine to squirt into Agatha's mouth the next 4 mornings, and she'll go back in 10 days to have the staples removed. That will be the day before I leave for a week in Denver, so I'm hoping her recovery goes smoothly.
The vet's report was that the lump was pretty encapsulated, but that inside looked possibly like necrotic tissue that definitely needs to be analyzed. The report should be back from the lab early next week. She did think that she got all the visible tumor, but said that if this should be a fibrosarcoma, it could've had microscopic tendrils that are impossible to trace and excise. Doing a little googling, it appears that cats fairly often get fibrosarcomas induced by vaccinations, and this lump is certainly in a likely spot to be that. We'll see when the biopsy results come back.
In the meantime, I have 4 syringes of pain medicine to squirt into Agatha's mouth the next 4 mornings, and she'll go back in 10 days to have the staples removed. That will be the day before I leave for a week in Denver, so I'm hoping her recovery goes smoothly.