A pregnant Luna was only nine months old herself when she was rescued by her current owners and had the beautiful kittens Twilight and his sister Stardust. All was well with the family until July 2023 when his owner felt a small walnut sized lump on Twilight’s back between his shoulder blades so she took him to the vet.
At first the vet thought it was a reaction to his identi chip. But to be on the safe side she sent off a blood sample from the lump. It came back not looking too good so she sent off a biopsy which worryingly came back as a cancer growth. Twilight was then referred to us where it was diagnosed by our Oncology team as a feline injection site sarcoma.
Twilight’s grateful owner said: “In the beginning, we were told the chances of it returning were 50-70% but the operation went so well, that it went down to just 10% after the surgery. The vets had also warned us that depending on how much muscle they had to cut away, Twilight’s gait or walking could be affected. Luckily, this was not been the case. He does all the things he was able to do before his surgery.”
Joy Fenner, one of our clinicians in Small Animal Surgery, who was supported by Resident in Oncology Filipa Lyseight, said: “The CT showed the tumour hadn’t yet spread elsewhere, but Twilight needed extensive surgery. The scans showed there were actually two small masses rather than one large tumour. Twilight had the masses removed with a large margin and recovered very well. Lab testing confirmed the masses had been removed with a margin of normal tissue, giving Twilight a good chance of them not coming back.”
His owner said “After five days he came home but he had to be kept away from the other cats and in a crate because he was not allowed to jump up onto furniture. Keeping him in my bedroom was the hardest part as he was used to the freedom of the house and garden. But with the help of a sedative he soon got used to it. After a month he was allowed into the rest of the house and two weeks later out into the garden. He was always the the boss of the other cats and now views me as his sole possession so will not allow any of the other cats into my bedroom anymore!”
She finished off by saying “He is such a playful and happy cat that we had to give him as much chance to life as we could. We are so pleased with his progress and grateful to the vets for such a happy outcome.”
