Pet Exchange Garden

welcome to our regular “Ask the Vet With Dr. Kris” segment! once a month, Dr. Kris answers as numerous of your questions as he can, and you can leave new questions for him in a comment.

Dr. Kristopher Chandroo is a veterinarian, scientist, photographer, animal welfare advocate, and developer of tension to Success (STS): The vital guide to Medicating Your Feisty, Grumpy or Reluctant Cat.  Dr. Kris wants  your cats to be twenty years old. and counting! and he wants to offer medication and therapy to them in a way that aspects the bond between cat and human.

Here are Dr. Kris’ answers to some of your questions asked in May. If your question didn’t get responded to here, Dr. Kris will answer them on his own site in the future. subscribe to his updates so you’ll be notified when the answers are published.

Black lump under bottom lip

Hi, my cat has a black ball best under her bottom lip, ought to I be worried?

After you read the answer below, also read this on “should I be concerned about this thing my cat is doing”.

But things that look like lumps or black balls can be a bit different, so I err on the side of knowledge whenever a cat grows something on their skin, lip, or just about anywhere. The much more you know about what the black ball is, the much more you know what to do about it. I want to categorize anything lump-like into inflammatory (chin acne etc), a growth (skin tag, cyst etc), and guarantee there are no cancer cells in there.

It takes me about 5 minutes to do this in an examination room, by doing something called a fine needle aspirate (FNA) and cytology.

For folks who say, “nah, I’ll just view it for now”, I just tell them that the morning they wake up, look at the lump and say “I gotta know what that is,” then we can figure it out at that point in time.

Sometimes lumps scab, fall off and don’t come back…problem solved! in some cases they stay and don’t cause any problems. in some cases they are the suggestion of a problem iceberg. We never really know, and I gave up guessing a long time ago. A FNA and cytology are my “don’t have to worry about it” tools.

Here is a story for ya:

I once had a client who when I pointed out a small lump on her cat, looked at me and said it didn’t matter what the lump was, because she would never do anything about it. That’s fine (the lump wasn’t bothering her cat at the time), but it was the way she said it – It was like she was happy of her decision to refrain from doing anything.

I let it go, and finished the exam. As we concluded, she made a point to bring it up again. She looked me in the eye, directed at her cat, and said, “just so you know, if that lump was something not good, I wouldn’t do a thing about it”.

Now, this is code speak for “they are just animals so it doesn’t matter or it’s not worth it to me”.

And I hear this sentiment all the time.

I stopped taking this kind of thing personally long ago – even though she really seemed to want me to! This is the reason my father could never be a vet – he would freak out if he heard someone say that!

People always say to me that they could never be a vet because of the unhappiness of euthanasia. and while that has its impact, it’s not the main thing that can crush you in this career. What can take you down is the intensity with which you are exposed to the callousness of people towards animals, or the personal attacks from people you try to help.

I looked at her and said, “some animals we love, some we eat, and some fall in between. I’m not here to tell you what your relationship with your cat ought to be, but many of us are here to bring as much good into the world as we can”.

I never saw her again.

What bloodwork ought to be done prior to dental surgery?

I recently took my adopted 8 year old to have his teeth cleaned. The diagnosis of – one, possibly two resorptive lesions – was reported. I have made an appointment with a recommended animal Dentist (cha ching cha ching) to have x-rays and an assessment done. Question: as blood work is required, can you address particular blood work tests to order?

It’s true – vet dentist, Cha-Ching! but damn, they can be good at what they do. I would be 100% carpal tunnel if I still did as numerous dentistries as I used to do!

The absolute basics for bloodwork would tell you what the kidneys and liver are up to. That way, if we go in suspecting one thing, but the dental X-rays tell us it’s something more, I know what exact options I can use for pain control afterwards. usually though, the way many modern labs are set up, you get way much more bang for your buck by running a common feline wellness panel.

Bloodwork can be a clue into a cat’s suitability for anesthesia.

You want anesthesia to be BORING. Anesthesia is the absolute wrong place for surprises. So a common anesthetic blood panel (that gives me much more than just liver and kidney tests) helps keep things boring. boring is good fonullnull