Not A Good Find

An 15 yr old came in for a dental cleaning and removal of at least one tooth. She was having some difficulty eating and the vet that saw her noted a problem with one of her molars. 


When the nurse anesthetized and intubated this cat, she found something else:

This was a very deep ulcerative lesion on the top of the tongue. It was too far back to be seen during a routine exam. It did not look "good" so I took a few biopsies of it. And it came back as Squamous Cell Carcinoma. AND there is no good way to address this as removal would involve removing the tongue..yeah, NOT an option. The cat is older so the owner does not wish to seek radiation treatment, which some of these tumors do respond to. Understandably, he's keeping the cat comfortable until it's time.