Hi Krista,
We had adopted two month old American Short Hair and got them all vaccinated at Petco plus got them Spayed/Neutered.
One of them, 2 years old Riley had a runny nose(Green Mucus) right from the beginning and later on the Vet at Petco mentioned that she has a Polyp and can’t be treated at their facility.
I need your help to find a vet that can perform Polyp removal surgery on my 2 year old female American short hair cat near Chicago, IL
It seems Riley has a very large Polyp or some type of mass that’s blocking her airway and food pipe; the vet tried to insert a tube for breathing and it couldn’t go through due to a large mass that is blocking it.
This Vet @ Westchester Animal Clinic in Porter, IN recommended a Specialist and is not optimistic that this polyp or mass can be removed through surgery and was proposing Euthanizing as an option which we didn’t agree.

Hello Dr. Magnifico,

I called your clinic about cat ear polyps. I watched your videos on Youtube about these. I believe my cat has one and was wondering what price range your office charges for the removal of these. Here I either get we can’t give an estimate at all without seeing them or very expensive. I live in Wisconsin and am having problems with resources regarding this situation. I don’t know who else to contact. I want to get my cat help with his ear.

Thank you,
Valerie Wild

I could really use some advice about my 7 year old cat, Squeak. I posted a comment on Dr. Magnifico’s YouTube video about a cat named Bear that had ear polyp surgery but thought I’d post here, too. I am an emotional wreck right now because yesterday morning I got some very bad news regarding Squeak’s cytology results from a FNA that was done at a specialty hospital. Sadly, my poor boy was diagnosed with malignant melanoma for the 3rd time in two years! I’m heartbroken… The trouble started at the end of December 2022 when I noticed a small lump on his right pinna. My primary vet did a lumpectomy and sent it off to be evaluated. Came back malignant melanoma. Excision was complete with clean but narrow margins. All was well until September 2023 when I found another lump at the base of the same ear. My vet advised me to go for a consultation with an oncologist and it was recommended that Squeak get a TECA-BO done. I was told that this procedure can be “curative” in some cases. The cost was astronomical but I wanted to do the best for my cat. He means the world to me! I began calling specialty vet hospitals to schedule the surgery as soon as possible but none near me were able to fit Squeak in. I finally found one in Pennsylvania and made an appointment for a surgical consultation. The surgery was done on September 25. My boy was a real trooper and recovered well. He did lose the blink reflex in his right eye but it resolved in about 2 weeks with me putting moisturizing drops in his eye daily. I was thrilled with Squeak’s progress and I thought we might have won the fight even though there was no guarantee that he’d be out of the woods now. I had to take money out of my retirement savings to pay for this surgery (it was actually more than $10,000!!) but it was worth it to save my cat’s life. Recently, I noticed that Squeak had been shaking his head and scratching where his incision was. I had an appointment scheduled with my regular vet for a checkup and to get some chest x-rays to make sure all was well. While there, I mentioned about the scratching and head shaking and asked if maybe it was scar tissue causing the reaction. My vet wasn’t concerned and just said “Maybe he feels something.” X-rays were clear and showed nothing concerning. I was told to come back for a recheck in 6 months. However, the symptoms gradually became more frequent and I brought Squeak back to the vet. This time, thinking it might be an infection of some kind, he prescribed Baytril and prednisolone for a course of 2 weeks. There was no improvement and this was very concerning for both the vet and myself. He said that it would be beneficial to get a CT scan to find out what we were dealing with. I was beginning to panic because I had a feeling where all this was leading. I took Squeak to the same hospital where he had his oncology consult. He was examined by a veterinary surgeon first and she did a FNA . Unfortunately, the CT scan could not be done because their machine went down. I got the cytology report yesterday morning. The pathologist’s interpretation was “Lymphocytic proliferation and many atypical multinucleated cells; suspicious for lymph node with metastatic amelanotic melanoma.” The vet that did the FNA said she would consult with an oncologist and get back to me with options for “treatment”. Surgery, radiation and/or chemo was mentioned . Meanwhile, I have been scouring the internet for any information I can get to help me make the right decision about what to do next. I have also posted on numerous cat health forums but only got one response from a vet in Virginia. He said that radiation would be recommended if there was a concern about margins but chemo would not be a good choice for this kind of cancer. He wanted me to keep him posted so I told him about the cytology results. I have not heard back from him yet. Can I please ask for your opinion about all this? I posted this in hopes that Dr. Magnifico would see it because she has done a similar type of surgery for a cat. Can anyone give me some guidance about how I should proceed? I will be discussing this on Monday with my regular vet after he reviews the report that was sent to him. I know I should just calm down but I’m basically a mess! Any information about a way to extend Squeak’s life and keep him comfortable would be SO much appreciated. Thank you!

Hi Dr. Magnifico,

Our adopted cat (former stray cat, now 100% indoor) has always shown all of the signs of a nasopharyngeal polyp (about 4 years now). I didn’t know what it was until I saw videos of cats with similar breathing noises and eventually saw your YouTube polypectomy videos.

Three short videos of his breathing sounds (turn up your volume) follow:

Called our vet for a surgeon referral, but they’ll only refer for a CT scan ($2000) before they’ll refer to a surgeon. Surgeon’s websites all indicate that they will only accept appointments by referral from a general Vet, so I can’t just make an appointment for examination by a surgeon (which I’m happy to pay for).

Bottom line, looking for a second-opinion / consult (happy to pay!) on whether it’s really necessary to do a $2000 CT scan *before* being referred to a surgeon for (a probably $2000) surgery. I’d rather just have a surgeon put the cat under anesthesia, go in, look for the polyp, and remove it if they see one. Happy to pay $2000 for just that surgery, even if it turns out there’s no polyp.

Thank you in advance for any response.

Please help with removing nasal polyp.

Hello,

My girlfriend has a cat she rescued almost 10 years ago.  Her name is Kitty.

She has quite a bit of difficulty breathing.  We have taken here to and from several local veterinary hospitals and they have prescribed various antibiotics and steroids.

After almost 6 months these seem to offer little relief to our poor little Kitty.

I am willing and able to drive Kitty anywhere within 500miles to try to remove the polyp.  We can stay for a few days if you need us to.

The local hospitals want over $10k total in several rounds of scans, xrays and preoperative over several weeks.  We can’t afford this.  Someone will be be able to make a real difference in Kitty’s life they would agree to meet with her and do what they can. 

I would also add that my girlfriend has a deep love of animals.  She regularly helps local shelters and hard luck cases like when she found Kitty.  She cleans and grooms pets for a living and volunteers her services to local shelters. You would be making an incredible gift to her.  I don’t have $10000 but I would gladly pay fairly for the procedure and arrange for our travel to you.

Looking forward to your reply.

Thank you,

Chris

Seeking Diagnosis/Treatment for Possible Nasopharyngeal Polyp in Cat

Our 5#, 18 mo old cat has been having breathing difficulty for about 6 months. We’ve been to two “regular” vets and one specialty vet. The “regular” vets have done chest x-rays and bloodwork trying to diagnose. We’ve been on multiple rounds of antibiotics, several steroid shots, and a few breathing treatments. The first vet suspected asthma, but none of the meds worked. The second vet suspected lung infection, but again, none of the meds caused any improvement. The cat is acting fine, eating and eliminating normally. No nasal discharge. Sounds like she’s snoring all the time.

We saw a specialist today. She determined that the cat isn’t able to breathe thru her nose much, if at all. We are waiting on lab results for a fungal infection. The next step she suggested would be for CT scan and rhinoscopy to check for foreign body, polyp, or other physical abnormality. I’m ok with sedated imaging, but their estimated cost for that is $4,000. I called MS State University Vet Clinic, and their estimate was also in that range. We’ve already spent hundreds trying to diagnose and treat this. I’m ok with spending more but not $4,000.

Can anyone suggest a vet in the Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi region that we can try?

Hello! I just got back from the vet with Maizy, by baby ginger kitten who is three months old. I got her as a stray from a feral colony of cats. The vet is concerned about her left ear. He can’t see down her left ear canal. He said it’s jammed packed with black sludge. He gave her medicine for an ear infection, but he isn’t convinced it’s that. He thinks it may be a polyp that grows off her eardrum and will eventually grow all they way up her canal. He said if she was a year or older he would be sure it was that but he has never seen one in a three month old kitten. If that were the case, the options would be euthanasia or complex surgery that goes into her jaw to get to the ear canal to remove it. It would require a specialist vet who would not be around my home town. He said it would cost roughly $4,000-$5,000 (he had a patient go that route a few years ago). I need more information about this. He didn’t give me a name and I was too shocked to ask. Can you help clarify this for me? I was super shocked and didn’t ask many questions.

How much should I expect to pay to have a nasopharyngeal polyp removed from my cat. So far we were told $1000 just for the CT to confirm the diagnosis. I’d hate to have to let her go for something that appears very treatable but the cost is just not feasible for us.

live in the Pittsburgh pa area. I have a cat with the nasal polyp issue. …

I live in the Pittsburgh pa area. I have a cat with the nasal polyp issue. He’s 5 yr old. I don’t have $2400 for the surgery at the specialist I was referred to. If you could point me in a direction. He keeps getting cold symptoms every few months. Can they suffocate? I know they don’t breathe out of their mouth. I’m so worried.

What if the breathing issues is not a polyp? And it’s not asthma or a respiratory infection. What else could it be in your experience?