My kitty's face is raw and swollen and i'm scared :(

[idalis]

My kitty is 14, and was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the intestine about a month ago and had surgery to remove the tumor, she started on chemotherapy last thursday. The very next day i thought her face looked a little swollen on the left cheek, but i watched it and it seemed to go down, and she was eating/acting pretty normal. Now today all of the sudden (didn't look like this this morning), the cheek is swollen again and there is like no fur there and it's red and slightly oozy. I'm taking her to the vet in the morning of course, but i'm so scared :( I'm scared they're going to tell me it's a metastasized tumor :( Does anyone have another idea of what this could be, or just want to attempt to calm my nerves? lol. I just lost my other 2 kitties, both 15, only 12 days ago and 2 1/2 months ago

[tiffers]

It may just be an abcess of a tooth or something. Especially to come up so suddenly and burst. I'm sorry about your other kitties, it must be hard. Let use know what the vet says. My thoughts are with you.

[idalis]

I'm hoping it is indeed a tooth/gum issue, as horrible as that sounds! I'm actually a dentist myself, but things are different for people of course.

The chemo can reduce her white blood cells and other cells, so it seems highly plausible that when those dropped a chronic lowgrade infection just blew up. And yeah, there was nothing there prior, this has all happened within exactly 1 week. It just scares the heck out of me, because my other kitty in the span of about 3 days of acting a little weird, basically collapsed, and died the next morning at the vets of a mast cell tumor in her liver.

[tiffers]

It may be what it was, and like you said Chemo lowers the immune system, so that her WBC's could no longer fight off the infection on their own.

[special]

Oh I'm sorry for the loss of your other two cats, so close togeher, and now dealing with cancer in this one. I know how terrible it can be waiting for the morning to take her to the vet. Does she appear to be in very much pain? Is there an emergency vet clinic near by in case she gets worse tonight?

I'll be watching for news.

[special]

PS I don't think dental issues are really all that much different in cats and people. a toothache is a toothache no matter how much fur you have or don't have!

[idalis]

Yes, our vet is a 24 hr emergency hospital, so if she looks worse i will take her tonight, but she doesn't seem to be too sick right now. Still is eating. They said to bring her any time tomorrow.

Yup, the principles of dentistry are still exactly the same really! It is fairly rare to have a human dental abscess fistulate extra-orally though.


Will let you all know what happens

[idalis]

It is indeed a tooth abscess. Whew. They are going to take it out tomorrow, they couldn't do it today because she had eaten, but they drained it

[Julia423]

I'm so glad that it is something relatively simple...what is your kitty's name?

[idalis]

Perky :)

[Julia423]

Well I'm glad that Perky is ok! ;)

[tiffers]

Aww, that's great that it wasn't anything life threatening. Are they going to clean all of Perky's teeth while she's under?

[idalis]

Yes, they will take full xrays and i want them to take out/treat anything that could pose a threat of infection while she's undergoing the chemo

[special]

Well that's great news! I mean, not great that poor Perky has to deal with a tootache, but great that it's not something worse. I would ask about premedicating her with antibitoics because of her chemo and cancer.

I was about to go into a semi lecture about cleaning teeth releasing a lot of bacteria into the body but I guess you know all that already<s> Of course it might be helpgful for someone else reading this thread to know that. As you know, some people with certain helath problems premedicate anitbiotics prior to dental work, and I would think a high risk cat like Perky might need that too.

D please let us know how she makes out after her dental surgery.