lumps in cats!

June 13, 2005 11:42 AM

Why is my kitty lumpy? What ideas do you all have that can cause lumps in cats?

The cat and I just went to the vet on Saturday for this. They took blood, and I'll get the results today. In the meantime, she's on antibiotics. But I'm still really curious as to what this is.

The cat: almost 13 year old Buff tabby/Tonkinese mix. Spayed long time ago, never goes outside, is on perscription food, and acting normally. I've also been her only owner siince she was 9 months old.

The lumps: They're at random parts of her body,and there's around 15 of them. All of them are about the size of a small pea, and and they seem to be in her skin. The lumps move around with her skin. They don't seem to bother her; she's not scratching at them, nor does she mind when I touch them. And, as mentioned before, she is acting completely normal - eating, pissing and pooing in her box, playing, screaming at her humans a lot, not losing or gaining weight, etc - she just now has lumps. They also just developed some two weeks ago.

Ideas? Thanks.

posted by spinifex23 to pets & animals (12 comments total)

A cat I used to have developed pretty much the exact same kind of lumps when he got older. The vet said they were cysts of some kind, but harmless. No action required.
posted by Cyrano at 11:56 AM on June 13, 2005

My dog has 'em, vet said they are fatty deposits.
Nothing to be concerned about.
posted by stevejensen at 12:07 PM on June 13, 2005

Probably unrelated, but my cat was born with a side-wall hernia and this being a hole in the muscle wall containing the intestines, a small loop of intestine poked through and feces was trapped in this visible lump. $2300 and two years later, he's alive and well, but he was pretty close to dying by the time the vets actually got off their asses to do the tests they should have done immediately (in which case, the total cost to me would have been about $800).
posted by Kickstart70 at 12:22 PM on June 13, 2005

spinifex23 posted "What ideas do you all have that can cause lumps in cats?"

Fatty deposits. My mother-in-law's dog has these. My wife's old kitty had one on her side, never bothered her any that we noticed.

(Of course, your question initially looked like you were asking us all for ideas that would create more lumps. I was going to suggest the surgical implantation of small plastic beads.)
posted by caution live frogs at 12:24 PM on June 13, 2005

Our old tomcat started getting these when he was about 12 or 13, the vet said they were just little accretions of fat in the skin and that as long as they didn't bother him we shouldn't worry about it, and neither we (nor the cat) ever paid any attention to them again.
posted by luriete at 3:02 PM on June 13, 2005

The lumps move around with her skin.

Also, my vet told me that was the critical thing. Lumps that don't move should give you more cause to worry.
posted by Cyrano at 3:30 PM on June 13, 2005

Have your vet check out the lumps. What look like something like fatty deposits on one animal could be cancer in another
posted by mabelcolby at 3:43 PM on June 13, 2005

Stupid cat owner story: Felt a lump between my cat's shoulders. After a week, it hadn't gone away. Convinced it was {arnie} a tooma {/arnie} I took the cat to the vet. It was his microchip. The vet didn't charge me, which was nice of her.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 5:27 PM on June 13, 2005

Rock. Thanks for the answers, all.

If the antibiotics don't work, we're going in for a biopsy, though they seem to be like the fatty deposits that so many of you have described.
posted by spinifex23 at 6:11 PM on June 13, 2005

Well, "fatty deposits" are generally lipomas - my cat has these - which are benign tumors made up of fat cells. But they don't normally appear all of a sudden, and certainly not 15 of them. They might be liposarcomas, which grow faster, and are malignant and should be removed - but I don't think those appear in groups either - anyway, good luck - and please update the thread so we know if she's all right!
posted by nicwolff at 11:46 PM on June 13, 2005

My cat has/had similar lumps, and like your cat, he doesn't scratch them or anything and they don't seem to bother him in the least. They're most notable in his ears and also has some on his body. The vet said they're allergy-related--most likely food. She said litter is another common culprit.

You already did the best thing and took her to the vet.
posted by ssmug at 3:43 AM on June 14, 2005

Too much flour?
posted by jackofsaxons at 6:07 AM on June 14, 2005