New Treatment for Deadly Cancer
Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the most common oral cancer affecting cats, hitting the gums, tongue, palate, and tonsils. It’s hard to remove all...
Limb Amputation in Cats
One of the last things you want to hear is that your cat needs a limb amputated, either because an accident left it damaged...
No Time to Lose
You know that if your cat starts eating less or keeping to herself more, something might be amiss and you should schedule a doctor’s...
How Serious is the Heart Murmur?
Your vet tells you on each wellness visit that he detects a slight heart murmur when he listens to your cat’s heart beat with...
A Cat’s Three Major Poison Threats
On average, a cat is brought to the emergency room at Tufts’s Foster Hospital for Small Animals at least every other day as a...
Cancer Warning Signs
One in five cats ends up diagnosed with cancer, often in his geriatric years. Moreover, cancer in cats is three to four times more...
Should Your Cat Need Blood
In human medicine, anyone can receive blood donated by someone who is type O. Type O’s are known as universal donors; people with other...
Gentle Into That Good Night
Your cat’s heart disease has progressed to the point that there are no more medicines to try, no higher dosages to give, no more...
Cancer After a Rabies Vaccine?
Periodic rabies vaccinations are the law in most states, yet some people are nervous about getting a rabies shot for their pet because they...
Common Cat Injuries — and How to Avoid Them
There’s a significant silver lining to the injuries that land many cats in emergency rooms. In many cases, the accidents that threaten our pets’...
If the Cancer Surgeon Got Clean Margins, Why Did the Tumor Grow Back?
You sit anxiously in the waiting room while your cat undergoes surgery to remove a cancerous mass. Finally, the doctor comes out in his scrubs and tells you he was able to excise the malignant tumor and that he believes he got it all. Relieved but not yet out of the woods, you wait for the pathology report. Sure enough, it confirms the surgeons belief that he excised the cancer in its entirety. There are clean margins. Why, then, does the tumor grow back in the exact same spot some months later?
Dear Doctor: Pushing back on the diagnosis
My beloved cat, Tigger, has died of cancer at the age of 19, and his death has left me feeling somewhat guilty. He enjoyed going outdoors, and I would follow him around the yard to make sure he was okay.
