2. FIRST CONSULTATION & BIOPSY The
cat snores day and night. No surgery
in case the cat dies on the operating
table. So, a biopsy was taken without
sedation as promised.
3.
THE SNORING NOISE RETURNS. The nose
cancer doubles in size in 7 days. The
owner decides on surgery despite poor
prognosis and that the cancer will
recur.
4. THE SURGERY TO EXCISE THE NOSE
TUMOURS
The cat went home
the next day after surgery to excise
most of the tumours. The owner phoned me
today and said that the cat was eating.
The nose bleeding on Sunday morning
after I had pulled out the swab which
stopped inside the nose bleeding was no
more. The family had decided on no
chemotherapy. "Can you do surgery when
the cancer returns?" the father asked.
"No," I said. "There is a big hole on
the top of the nose, now covered by the
skin. This malignant tumour doubles in
size every 7 days and I expect that the
cat will not live long." Chemotherapy is
not guaranteed and may cause the cat to
lose appetite. So, what's the advice?
"Try chemotherapy in low dosage first,"
I advised. There was nothing to lose as
the wife was quite close to this cat.
Chemotherapy does not cost thousands of
dollars unlike the case in human cancer
treatment. "Euthanasia will be the only
option when the cancer recurs and
bacterial infections of the right
nostril causes pain and suffering," I
said. This cat had no infection from
this surgery because she had been on
antibiotics 6 days before surgery and
after surgery. So she responded well and
could eat and drink normally at home
post-operation, much to the happiness of
the wife. But death is really at the
door. If chemotherapy helps, it will be
a happy ending.
FOR MY RECORD
Weight: 3.5 kg. Cat.
Anaesthesia. Domitor
0.1 ml IV. Zoletil 100 0.1 ml IV.
Atropine 0.5ml SC. Intubate. Gave
oxygen. Duration of anaesthesia was
nearly one hour. A few seconds of
isoflurane gas was given towards the end
of surgery. It was taking one hour to do
it. IV saline and baytril drip given 24
hours.
Post-operation. No Antisedan antidote
was given so that the cat could be
sedated and wake up with less pain. The
cat was observed breathing normally
through its left nostril (forceps into
nostril confirming no cancer cells from
right nostril). He slept for many hours
and was fresh as a daisy on the next
morning after surgery.
Surgery on Friday at 4
pm. Incise with scalpel. Undermine skin.
Nasal tumour grows from inside the nose,
break through nasal bone is 2.5 cm x 1
cm long and much deeper inside the nose.
Electro-surgery separates tumour as much
as possible from nasal bone. Excised.
Large hole in nasal bone eaten by the
tumour seen. Around 1 cm x 0.5 cm. Round
fatty tumour cells seen from inside the
nose and excised.
I put a gauze swab into the nasal hole
and pull it out from the nostril using
forceps (see picture at
www.toapayohvets.com). This stops
bleeding. Electro-coagulation of the
tissues inside the nose helps but does
not stop the bleeding.
Goes home on Sunday at
10 am after I pull out the gauze swab. I
smelled the gauze swab. Not smelly and
this is a good sign that there is no
bacterial infection. Red blood oozed out
of the nostril. Owner asked to wipe the
blood off regularly. The bleeding
stopped on Monday and the cat has been
normal for the 3 days post-surgery as I
write this article to share my
experience of this nasal surgery with a
vet student studying hard for his 4th
year examinations in Murdoch University.
He has his horse examination today, Nov
18, 2010. The sheep and cattle
examinations were completed the last two
days. It is extremely tough to study so
many animals for the final year
examination. Human medical students
study only one species but vet students
must study so many! After he
graduates, the pet owners expect him to
know everything and operate on every
animal in this world!
BE
KIND TO OLDER DOGS & CATS --- GET TUMOURS REMOVED
EARLY --- WHEN THEY ARE SMALLER. More case
studies, goto:
Cats or
Dogs
TOA
PAYOH VETS
