How to take care of a Cat with jaw tumor
Jaw Tumor is the most common type of cancer in Cats, and It is painful to see your favorite pet animal suffering. So to care for her you have to be brave and be there for your Cat when they need you more than anything. It arises all around the mouth (gums, tongue or tonsils, or other connected parts). It can not be recognized easily until it has grown into its dangerous stages, so it is better to look for signs so you can have a better idea about your cat’s health.
As I mentioned in my other articles, “Cats aren’t that good at showing pain emotions to their owners,” so you’ll have to look for them yourselves.
Here are some signs of cat with jaw tumor:
The first thing you’ll notice in a Cat with a jaw Tumor is sudden weight loss due to almost no or much less appetite.
It’s not because they don’t want to eat, it’s because they can not eat, Cats are very hungry animals, but a Cat with a tumor may only sniff its food and won’t take it to the mouth.
You will also notice some unidentified mass inside your Cat’s mouth. It can be seen in different places Inside the mouth, whether below the tongue or the upper side of the mouth.
Due to the unidentified mass, the mouth of the Cat becomes wounded. You can also come across mouth bleeding sometimes.
Due to mouth bleeding and undifferentiated mass gums becoming swallowed, teeth become weak and come out of the mouth. Teeth loss is another sign of Jaw Tumor.
Diagnosis for a cat with jaw tumor:
Tumors aren’t that visible all the time, and upon checking for tumors, cats will show some aggression due to pain, and it’s really painful to watch your favorite animal suffer. Diagnosis of Jaw Tumor in cats can be done in different medical ways. One way is to give your cat a short time sedative or injection of anesthesia so tests can be done on either a complete tissue or a part of it.
Along with regular X-Rays, CT scans, and blood tests. Although these processes are painful and difficult for your Cat, these are for their health.
Treatment a cat with jaw tumor:
Now when you have diagnosed the disease, it’s time to treat it. As you know, there is no cure for cancer, it can be controlled temporarily, and even after all the possible treatments, sadly, there is no guarantee that your Cat will survive.
As we know, cancer cells grow into surrounding bones and tissues and can cause them harm, too, So the first thing to do is to remove them as soon as you can. Although the tumor can be removed in the early stages if identified early. But later, removing the tumor from the Cat means removing a large part of the body of the Cat. And sometimes, due to complexity, removing parts of the body is impossible.
If a cat is done with the surgery, it maybe needs feeding tubes temporarily or sometimes permanently.
Chemotherapy is the usage of injectable drugs, and This can not help in a complete cure of the disease, although this can help in controlling the tumor in Cats that are physically engaged in other activities like playing around and interacting with everyone.
Due to chemotherapy, Cats can catch other diseases like Diarrhea or vomiting, and hair loss too, but it’s very rare.
If, after the surgery, the tumor isn’t removed completely, Radiation therapy is used to disable the regrowth of the tumor to prevent it from spreading into nearby tissues.
Radiation therapy can also cause other diseases like ulcers or allergies in surrounding tissues.
The prognosis for cats isn’t proper because of fewer treatment options available. The prognosis is similar to Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy, or surgery. About 3-5 months, only less than 10% of cats survive to a year prognosis. Prognosis also depends on some other factors related to the tumor-like its size, shape, place, and whether it’s growing or not.
