Sumner at Vet- lump in abdomen

[galensgranny]

So sorry I have not been around lately.

We noticed Sumner had lost weight in approximately a week, to where he was feeling and looking bony, so we took him to the vet Wed.  The vet felt a mass in his abdomen, so did an x-ray.  There is a large mass in his abdomen.  So, Thurs., Sumner will have surgery to find out what the mass is, and have it removed if possible.  Cancer is the likely thing.  I hope not.  Hopefully it is a non cancerous tumor that can be safely removed and that it will turn out that Sumner lost weight only due to not feeling so hungry if the tumor pressed a lot on his stomach. 

I won't know anything until around maybe 3PM on Thurs.  I hope It won't be bad news, but I suspect it will be.

[kb2zct]

Margaret:

I am so sorry to hear about Sumner.  Please let us know as soon as possible about what is going on - although I would expect any final diagnosis might be several days away, as the tissue would be sent to a lab for testing.

I will keep him, and you, in my prayers today.

Mark

[animalangel1]

Oh no!!! I, too, hope that it will not be bad news!!!  I will keep you and Jim and Sumner in my prayers!!!  Will be waiting to hear what it is and keeping my fingers crossed too....

[grammywms]

Oh, Margaret, I am so sorry to hear about Sumner.   Hope the surgery went well today.  I'll pray, too, that you get good news, not bad.   

[galensgranny]

The surgery went well.  The large mass was attached to part of Sumner's intestine.  The mass and part of the intestine were removed, and the ends of the intestine sewn together.  The vet cut into the mass and found pus, and that the walls of the mass were thick.  Thick walls point to it being cancerous, but the test results are needed to be sure.  It will be a few days to get the results.

Sumner was going to spend the night at the vets office, where there isn't anyone there overnight, but the vet called at around 7PM before she was going to leave for the day, to say we needed to take him to the overnight Animal ER because Sumner ripped out one or two of the staples for the incision and got the IV fluids with meds line bandage off.  He was very, very active, in a stuporous way, flipping and flopping like a fish out of water.  So, he will be sedated at the ER vet and watched overnight.  Then we have to pick him up in the morning and bring him back to the regular vets.  He might be able to come home Saturday. 

I hope he calms down and does not try to rip out his stitches/staples anymore, even when off the sedation.  I do understand his feeling a bit panicked about waking up to find himself in a cage with "things" in his body that he was not aware were put into it.  The good thing about that is that it shows he has strength and energy even after a major surgery.

Thanks for all the good wishes and prayers.

[grammywms]

Sounds like they got it all.  Let us know the results of the pathology.  You are right, the fact that he is active is a good sign.  Sometimes the anesthetic makes them wild afterwards...at least that is what I have seen with pediatric patients.  They eventually calm down as everything wears off and gets out of their system.  Hope that's the case with Sumner.

[animalangel1]

Oh my!! Poor Sumner.... I hope he settles down so the medicine can stay inside him so he gets better!!!!  I will pray that they got the entire mass out and that nothing has "spread" and that Sumner will be given a clean bill of health.  Still keeping my fingers crossed that it wasn't cancer....... keeping you all in my thoughts and prayers.

[kb2zct]

Hi Margaret:

Wow, Sumner's condition was not anything I've ever heard of before.  It sounds as if it were an abscess, and the sudden growth in size could be the cause of his sudden weight loss.

I will continue to pray that it is not cancer, but only a nasty internal abscess, and that he will quickly recover from it. 

Mark

[galensgranny]

Sumner is home and doing very well.    He came home Saturday at noon.  He has to stay where he can't jump on anything.  Fortunately, our house has the perfect "cat recovery room".  We have a very small room upstairs between the two bedrooms, with a small part of the room over the stairs.  It is the size of a bathroom, but there nothing it in except a litter box, a cat "cubby" and clothes hanging on a rod. (Someday I would like to put in bathroom fixtures.)  So, I made a nice cat bed from a large box lid, with a pillow in it and put in an area rug/mat.  There is a large window in that room as well, so it makes a nice little cat room.

Sumner purrs and purrs like crazy when one of us goes in to visit him, and he rubs and rubs on us.  He is very glad to be home and with his people.

He has to eat a prescription diet for around a week.  It is Hills AD canine/feline canned food.  The food is a very soft consistency, softer than normal pate style cat food, so it will pass through his system easily, past the area where his intestines were sewn back together.  Sumner likes it and has a good appetite.  On Saturday, we had to give him just one heaping spoon full every two hours, so that he wouldn't have too much at one time to digest and go through his intestines.  He ate every last bit of all his servings.  Now we go to 1/2 of a 5.5oz can 4 times a day for the next two days, and after that, we are to mix in some of his usual canned food for a few days, until finally he is back to just the regular canned food.  Then he can start on dry food. 

His staples come out in 12 days.  I found two on the floor.  I'm not sure if they fell out of if he pulled them out, but he still has a lot of staples.  After he pulled some out when he was coming out of the anesthesia and was flipping and flopping around, the vet put in extra staples, so if he pulled out a few, it wouldn't really matter.

Mark, it was not an absess.  Cells from the intestine "went crazy" and grew to large mass, which blocked and damaged part of the intestine, to where Sumner couldn't get food, or not much, past the affected area.  So he wasn't getting nutrients in him.  With so many cats, I did not notice he wasn't eating or not eating much.  I did see him start to eat food, but then didn't pay attention to how much he ate, never thinking he either only took a taste or that he regurigated it up later on.  I had seen a few food regurgitation messes around, but all of the cats do that from time to time when a hairball is upsetting their stomach, so I didn't think much of it when I would find a regurgitation mess on the floor.  I wasn't seeing it every day, but I will probably find some old dried spots under furniture when I clean under furniture.  But, it wouldn't take many days of not being able to have food fully make it through the intestines before a cat would loose enough weight that was obvious by looks alone.

It is probably an intestinal lymphoma.  Here is info about that: http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_feline_lymphoma.html.  They say, "Intestinal lymphoma is now the most common form of lymphoma in the cat. ..... An actual mass may develop with intestinal lymphoma or the tumor may be more infiltrative.  An actual mass can potentially cause obstruction in the intestine and lead to a crisis that must be promptly resolved surgically." 

Unfortunately, IF it is cancerous, simply removing the mass isn't the end of the story.  He would need some kind of chemotherapy. From the way that website tells it, even with chemotherapy, he won't live long

[animalangel1]

Oh my goodness..... Poor Sumner..... I'm very glad to hear that he is doing so well now though after the surgery.  I really do hope the mass was not cancerous.  I hope it was just a "one time thing" and that he heals and thrives for many more years.  Do you know when you'll be hearing the results of the test on the mass??????

Wow..... I just read the stuff in the link you provided.  It's not very encouraging, is it?  I am so sorry this is happening to Sumner and to you and Jim.  I will keep Sumner (and you and Jim) in my prayers.