Cat health question (long)

[brazen_irish_hussy]

This is long, but I would REALLY appreciate any advice.
My cat Maggie is a 7 year old indoor cat. She is overweight, but has never had serious health problems. 2 years ago, she scratched the fur off her belly. The vet took a look, said it was an allergy, gave her a steroid and she was fine. About a month ago, she did it again so we took her in to get a steroid, which definitely helped.

We also had the vet look at a small cyst she had on her tail for about a month. It was about twice the size of the head of a sewing pin, a 1/3 of the way up her tail and she was totally unaware of it. He said to keep an eye on it and if it changed to let him know. 2 weeks after the appointment, we woke up and it was red, 3-4 times the size it had been and smelled. We took her in and they drained it some, but it was still very large, a dome about the same size around as a dime. He gave us an anti inflammatory and an antibiotic and set an appoint to take her in, which was today, to get it removed. It was very odd looking. It occasionally bled or had a bit of pus, but not usually. It was lumpy on top and the areas they drained from looked bloody and no matter how much I cleaned them, they had the scab there. The antibiotics didn't seem to help, but the anti-inflammatory shrunk it some, but it only got flatter, not smaller. Over the week a second layer of thick skin seemed to grow on the outside of it, but it never seemed to hurt or bother her.

They removed it today and it was definitely a tumor not a cyst, but my very experienced vet has never seen anything remotely like it. He thinks he got it all, but if not and it does come back, we may have to remove her tail. We are getting it tested, but it is the best lab in the country for veterinary medicine and diagnosis, so they have a lot of cases and it will take 2 weeks to get the results. I have looked online and can't find anything that looks or sounds like this and I was hoping someone on here had an idea so I am not on pins and needles for 2 weeks.

 

[Karl_K]

I went to post a long reply but it got lost...

Short version:
Asked a vet-tech friend/client who I happened to be talking to.
She said she has seen simulator when something got lodged under the skin.
Part of a bee stinger in one case and part of a tooth in another.

 

[Haven]

Brazen, I can't help at all (though I very much wish I could.) I just wanted to say I hope you can figure out what this is, and I'm thinking very good thoughts for your kitty. I'm sorry she's going through this.

Karl's explanation sounds very possible, though.

 

[tyty333]

Hoping its something like Karl said (a one time deal)...***kitty tail dust and dust for your nerves as well***.

 

[TooPatient]

Poor kitty.

It sounds like you have a very good vet and you're doing everything you can.

Waiting for lab work is never easy. Big hugs and lots of dust to you and your kitty.

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

Thank you.
The vet didn't see anything in it, but if it was small of disolved he wouldn't. She is doing well.
She was so high when she came home we had to keep taking her off tables and what not since she was knocking things off and we were afraid she would fall and hurt herself. She wandered around the house and everytime she got somewhere it would suddenly occur to her that she really needed to be somehwhere else and she would waddle off. Our other cat would hiss at her because she smelled off and she would just cock her head like she was trying to figure out why the white blob in front of her was making funny noises. I wish I had a video camera it was so funny; if I had posted it on youtube she would be a star right now.
Once it wore off, she seemed totally unaware that anything had ever been wrong, so she is not in any pain and even though it was huge, the vet managed to do an amazing job sewing it back up.

Thank you all for your well wishes. The fact that it doesn't look like any known horrible diseases and that she has been totally unaware of it from the beginning makes me feel better. I will keep updates and if anyone has any further ideas I would be glad to hear them.