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.

Our cat has what we believed to be an abscess on his cheek. Initially he was struggling with scabs and itching under the skin, some sort of a skin condition, so we switched him to prescription food. Hasn’t changed anything. He had a scab on his cheek and kept scratching it, until it started to bleed. A lot. We took him to the vet, he was put on steroids and antibiotics to see if it would help…it did slightly, but the wound from picking at his scab started to get bigger. He is relentless with trying to scratch it. So now he’s been wearing a cone..the wound site has turned into a ball. It’s a bald spot and it slowly got bigger over time. It’s warm to the touch. We took him to a different vet. Says it’s too hard to determine what it could be and referred us to a dermatologist. Derm says likely could be cancer and it’s a mass…..even though we have explained how it all started. He is quoting us $5k to remove the mass and test for cancer. We are thinking it’s just an infection that is stuck under the skin….last vet tried poking it and draining it, but there was no puss, only blood. What could this be? We are worried but stil have a feeling it could just be an infection. Maybe he wasn’t on antibiotics long enough? Do we just proceed with this surgery?

7 year old female beagle with a history of allergic reactions (bee stings, environmental/pollen/poison Ivy)- started to exhibit serious scratching and head shaking. I have a cone at home so I used that to deter the scratching and head shaking. I also tried these “allergy aid” treats (picture attached), and /or Benadryl to try and calm down the allergic response.
She was starting to get small hives on her head and one of her ears was swelling . She’s had the ear hematomas before in both ears, and the hives before in her head and back.
I was worried it may be fleas or ticks with the smaller hives, so I did the topical flea &tick K9 Advantix with no improvement.
I also gave her a bath two days ago with her mild oatmeal shampoo, and gave her a good scrub just in case there were any mites or critters.
My other half said she threw up yesterday when I was out and had some anal leakage? And now she is not eating- she didn’t poop today when I took her out, instead she peed, did her usual walk around and then just sat down like she was uncomfortable. So I am wondering if she’s constipated and that is why she’s not eating.

Male Himalayan cat eyes swollen and red and ears itchy
I have A male himilayan who seems to be having an allergic reaction to something but I’m not sure if it’s a reaction or something else. His eye lids are swollen red and puffy and he keeps scratching his ears till they bleed. My vet told me to open the windows and air out the house which I did For 7 hours and it has gone down a bit but he still looks uncomfortable. It has been on and off for the past week of getting puffy and there was a wall diffuser my mother in law kept plugging in and when it was unplugged it got better but then she’d plug it in again. It has now been removed for good and it’s been almost 12 hours and he’s still puffy. Any suggestions or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Nothing else has changed in the house that I can Think of for another cause of allergies or irritation. I am Trying to get him into a vet tomorrow.

Hi all! I hope someone on here might be able to shed some light on the mystery going on with our 6 month old male golden retriever. We got him at 10 weeks and kept him up to date with shots and all was fine, but about 6 weeks ago we started noticing a little bit of swelling in his front armpits (one side more pronounced than the other) we kept an eye on it and eventually brought him to the vet when it continued to grow. The vet did a needle aspiration and saw bacteria in the murky clear/slightly yellow fluid and prescribed antibiotics. We brought him to another vet a week later who suggested surgery to drain the fluid and tried that. The lump stayed down for a week while he was healing (on sedatives and antibiotics) but now it is starting to grow again! The idea of it being a seroma has been considered but no one can really nail down what is going on or why. His blood panel is completely normal, the biopsies from the fluid and tissue show no indicators of cancer, and the only strange thing was a high level of calcium in the fluid (there were more scientific terms used but I do not recall them)… he scratches at the lump pretty frequently but other than that he acts completely normal and healthy! We noticed that scratching tends to make it grow/become inflamed and if he leaves it alone, it will shrink down significantly… it is all so strange so if anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it! Here are some pictures post-op if it helps at all! Thank you so much!

My 4 year old lab has chronic ear infections. We have a great system in place (regular ear cleanings, steroid drops during an infection, and anti inflammatory when it’s really bothersome to him) to try to stay ahead of them, and treat them from home when he has a flare up. Recently during a flare up (about 2 weeks ago) he developed a lump on the inside of his ear that I thought was a scab from scratching, but now I’m worried it could be some kind of skin cancer. Or is it just scar tissue and since it’s on the ear is a little more raised? Should I take him in to be seen for this or monitor it a little longer to see if it heals and goes away? It doesn’t seem to cause him any pain, he’s more concerned about his itchy ears.

Hello!
my cat chunk has been recently having issues with his front paws for the past 2 months. It’s off and on and when I touch his paws he doesn’t wince or cry. He still uses the scratching pad with no issue, but he’s limping and he can no longer jump up on the bed as easily. I’m afraid he may have arthritis. What is a good supplement or something we can get to help him with his joints so he’s strong again! He’s not an elderly cat, I guess you could call him middle aged. Thank you! He’s about 15 lbs

my dog had had red skin and was constantly biting and scratching himself and he would get sores where he would scratch so much. He also had some dandruff. I read about it on google and thought it could be a food allergy so i changed his food a while ago and it got better super fast, but he’s still constantly scratching and rolling around and i’m not sure why. His fur is a bit dry and rough so i’m thinking it could be his fur scratching him, i’m not sure. Is there any products or anything at all you would recommend?

We have a 2 year old Jack Russell named Toby. Papers from the breeder say he is registered, but my guess is if we spent the money on a DNA test we would find a stranger in the midst. We love him and wouldn’t trade him for the world but we think he has an addiction! He was not handled by the breeder and probably didn’t know human touch other than when his tail was docked and dew claws removed as a pup until we bought him.

He seems as though he is now addicted to our touch. Any kind of touch. He loves scratches from anyone, anywhere, at any time, and if you stop scratching him, he whines non stop. Could this behavioral issue be due to the lack of early touch? As much as we love this lug, having our hands on him every waking moment isn’t feasible.

I would love to know what we can do to keep him occupied that doesn’t include belly rubs, butt scratches, and tickling his ribs non stop. He has toys he.plays with as well as two other Jack Russell’s to terrorize squirrels in the back yard with, so it’s not a lack of stimulation. Open to suggestions! Oh, and the breeder was breeding pit bulls in the same place with Russell’s and at 30+/- lbs, we are pretty sure dad, well you understand!
Thank you