Joey’s Pet of the Week – Cooper Loses a Leg

By Scott Lackenby | Dated January 11, 2017

Heya peeps! How  are you all?  Hasn’t it been warm?!? Hopefully you have all stayed nice and cool, you animals friends too. Be sure to take extra special of your animals when the weather is this hot. Make sure we have plenty of water, and access to cool, shady spots. This type of heat can be a killer if you don’t look after us right.

My star this week is the gorgeous Cooper, a 13 year old ginger moggy cat who came to us all the way from Cherrybrook. Cooper came to see Dr Scott Lackenby after what appeared to be a cyst on her foot burst. When Dr Scott examined the cyst, he thought it was most likely a severe inflammatory reaction or a tumor. Cooper was prepared for an anesthetic to have the lump explored  and for a possible biopsy to be taken.

Once anaethetised, Dr Scott could have a good look at the lump. The contents of the lump were suggestive of it being a tumor, and not a benign one. A needle aspirate of the lump confirmed the presence of spindle cells, a type of cancer. While Cooper was still under the anesthetic,  we spoke to her Mum  to discuss the options.  There were two options, we could biopsy the lump and send it to the external lab for analysis and plan surgery once the results were back, we could remove the affected toes and the whole mass now and still send it to external lab for analysis. Cooper’s Mum opted for the latter. Cooper had two toes removed as well as the lump.  The surgery went well and she recovered well. Cooper would need to be kept confined while got used to walking with two less toes and needed to come back to have her bandage changed in a few days and her sutures removed in 10 days.

All was looking good at the first bandage change, despite Cooper thinking taking it easy meant jumping on and off cabinets! At the second bandage change,  the bandage was irritating Cooper so a lighter bandage was put on. We also had the lab results back. The lump was a Fibrosarcoma, a  tumor of the connective tissue that often recur locally but rarely spread to other parts of the body. If the lump did recur, Cooper would likely need her leg amputated.

Cooper came back later that day after she managed to remove the bandage and have a lick at the wound. The bandage was reinforced,  Cooper was threatened with the cone of shame if she didn’t behave, and was told to come back for another bandage change in a week.

At the next change, things weren’t going to well. Cooper’s wound had started breaking down. Given this complication, the high chance of the tumor coming back, and the fact that Cooper was now obviously bothered by the leg and the breakdown of the wound, Dr John Morgan recommended amputation of the leg.

Dr John performed the amputation and the surgery went well. Cooper recovered well from the anesthetic and was a good patient. She spent 4 days with us after the surgery. She was moving around her cage well and when she was given more room to move, she was even trying to jump onto a bench! Cooper was clearly not going to let losing a leg hold her back!

Well, better go. There’s still boarding cats that need my attention. Meows for now, love Joey xoxo