How is a cat diagnosed with cancer
Cancer and Your Pet (PART 2 - THE CAT) Signs and Symptoms
good morning everyone welcomed out on
the range with dr. Lee this is my kitty
cat Frankie here and today we're going
to do part two of the three-part cancer
awareness series and what we're going to
try to do today is show you what you can
do at home to check your kitty cats to
see if they have precancerous conditions
basically what we're looking for is
lumps and bumps just like last week when
we did dozer and the dog series every
day when you pet your little kitty cat
you need to just rub them down all over
and don't miss one square inch of body
tissue when you do it when these when
these kitties come in for their yearly
physicals we listen to their hearts we
check in their ears we look in their
mouth and check their eyes and we
literally rub our hands over every
square inch of their body and you need
to be doing that at home too because you
catch these things early on and a lot of
times a little bit of surgery will take
we'll save the cat's life but basically
there's things that we do here that you
can't do exactly as we do them unless
you're trained ie listening to their
heart with a stethoscope putting an
otoscope in their ears things like that
but there are ways that you can check
what we're checking and basically with
kitty cats just like in dogs you want to
know if their heart is beating regularly
you want to know if their heart is
beating harder than it should faster
than it should and there's no way to
know that unless you check it every day
and you know what normal is and just
liking the dog you can run your hands
down here in the armpits on both sides
and a lot of times if you just work it
you can get your fingertips between
those ribs in the spaces between the
ribs and you can feel that heart beating
same thing back here this is the femur
bone right here and you can put your
hand in here inside in the flank and
come back on top of that bone and that
femoral artery runs over
that bomb and if you do it every day
sooner and later you're going to be able
to feel that thing just from practice
and when you find that artery once you
find it it makes it easier to find it
each time and all you have to do put
your fingers on it's just like us
checking pulse right here on our wrist
all you have to do is put your hands
back there and you can feel that artery
too we always check the heart first and
then I go to the ears what you're
looking for in the ears you do not want
to see it discharged you don't want to
have a stinky ear you smell the foul
smell coming from the hair that needs to
be checked if you see any lumps or bumps
in there and just like the dog they've
got chunks of cartilage there a very
weird shape and what they have on one
side they should have on the other side
too if you ever find a lump or bump that
the cat has in one ear that he does not
have in the other ear than that then
that needs to be checked as well but
always check the eyes too you want to
make sure that the pupils are the same
size a lot of times we'll have brain
problems that cause the pupils to change
in size tumors and the brain things like
that and you also want to make sure if
you have a kitty cat that has white hair
around its nose or a flat hair on its
ears and pink skin underneath you saw
the pictures of my kitty cat on the
cancer video and and she had a pink nose
with white hair around it and she got us
blame it cell carcinoma i malignant
tumor that's going to take her life so
those cats that do have pink noses and
pink skin on their ears and white hair
around those areas they really need to
be in the house or protected from the
sunlight between ten o'clock in the
morning and four o'clock in the
afternoon or they're really really going
to be likely especially if they live as
long as mojo did she's sixteen year old
cat and really likes the sunshine and
it's hard to keep them out of the Sun if
they like it but that that's something
that you need to try to prevent but on
Frankie cats that have a lot of orange
in their coats like Frankie
cats like calicoes and have a lot of
orange and also tortoiseshell kitties
any cats that have orange they have a
lot of black pigment commonly in their
nose their eyelid their lips and their
gums
Frankie is unlike those caps a lot of
orange cats have that he doesn't have
much pigment at all but that is one
thing you need to look for and make sure
that those areas that are black on an
orange cap are not raised or ulcerated
angry-looking
lesions as long as they're flat and
there's a little pigment get your vet to
check it but in most cases they're
they're just benign accumulations of a
pigment in there because you always want
to open up their mouth cats don't care
much for that they'll usually pick up
that paw and come at you but make sure
or the other Pole that's good Frankie
you're a good kitty cat and you also if
they'll let you open their mouth like
that look in make sure you don't see any
areas that are ulcerated any teeth that
are missing or really really loose any
tumors growing in there any lumps bumps
anything that does not look perfectly
normal you need to have that checked
also one thing to look for when you look
in a cat's mouth is look for yellowing
especially toward the back of the mouth
if you see yellowing on the roof of the
mouth back toward the back that's an
indication to and if you see it there
one thing you also need to do is pull an
eyelid back like that so you can see the
whites of their eyes and if you see a
yellow discoloration there you need to
get that Kitty into the vet pretty
quickly and what we've done is like I do
check the heart check the ears and I go
to the tip of the nose and we're going
to work our way all the way back so the
next thing in line is in the throat
right here you want to check for lymph
nodes and if they were just looking for
lumps and bumps again there's salivary
glands there's thyroid tissue in here
and we do see a lot of cats that
by Roy problems you saw Ricky Bobby in
one of the other videos where he had
that terrible tumor in his thyroid gland
we have a lot of cats that just have
thoroughly diseased and they'll have a
big lump where their thyroid gland is
and if you pay attention to the heart
rate those cats would usually have a
very very high heart rate too and
they're usually real skinny cats they
don't feel good they're kind of kind of
slender but they eat all the time
so a cat that eats a lot but he's still
rail-thin skinny that's an indication
that that cat needs to be checked by Roy
disease is pretty fixable there's a lot
of treatments different avenues of
treatments that you can use we've got a
lot of hyperthyroid caps in this
practice coming on back a little bit now
we covered this area up here can them
back here you need to check the bones
make sure all the bones feel the same on
both sides and that they're not painful
you need to also coming back here into
the chest if you feel a bunch of
vibrations while the cat is breathing or
if your cat coughs or if your cat does
open mouth breathing those things need
to be checked really quickly we see a
lot of cancers in the in the cats lungs
we see a lot of vulnerable conditions
and which which brings to mind another
thing too if you ever if your cat starts
to get what looks like a Roman nose if
this nose starts to swell or if you has
a discharge promise nose commonly see
vulnerable problems caution that in the
kitty cat to coming on back in the cat
if your cat is not a little fat pig like
my cat is a lot of times you can feel
the kidneys and these cats and again
it's not anything you're going to be
able to tell on the first day but if
you're checking that cat every day and
you get a good appreciation of how he
should feel then you have a much better
chance of telling when things go wrong
but just run your hands through its
abdomen
them inside the side and coming on back
you just want to palpate through the
bowels and your cat will get used to
this - you do it every day couple it
with a little bit of padding maybe a
little food in the bowl or some treats
laying around when you do it - and as
you work your way back you do not want
to feel any masses in the bowels and
that end the bowels are right behind the
rib cage as you work as you work your
way back there next thing in line is the
bladder bladders can have cancers and
then - again it's kind of hard to feel
but as you as you get used to doing this
you'll be able to feel that bladder kind
of changes in size day to day and what
time of day and when the last time the
kitty cat urinated and especially if you
have a kitty cat that has urinary tract
infections urinary tract inflammations
or if your cat has what's diagnosed as
feline idiopathic cystitis or they'll
call it F I see if your cat has any
urinary tract issues at all you need to
know how to palpate the bladder but also
further back now check both the back
legs again talking about the lymph nodes
they have lymph nodes in the same places
the dog sit under the chin in front of
the shoulder blades in the armpits back
here in the drawing and also behind the
knees you need to always be checking
those and if you feel any of them
enlarged that needs to be checked out
always check their anus the rectal area
back there always check their sorry
friend of it kind of I'm just felt weird
always check their anus always check
their urinary openings back here
make sure there's no protrusions from
those areas and make sure the color is
always consistent and you need to always
be watching the feces the stools in the
litter box where your cats had a bowel
movement guys need to be checking that
make sure that stool is of a normal
consistency normal
sighs that there's no blood in it you
need to always check the urine too
especially you guys that have kitty cats
that have urinary disease need to always
make sure the urine the amount that
urinate is the is the average amount and
that it does not have new blood in it
you need to kind of watch through they
start urinating outside of the box then
that's an indication that there there
could be some issues especially if you
can't already have some urinary disease
that's pretty much it in the cat that in
a nutshell that was really quick but
basically the most important thing is do
what I'm doing because cats like it
anyway and especially if you've got a
little love bug like Frankie so he likes
to suck up the attention but if you just
watch him you can tell he likes me
messing with it and most capture that
way too if they don't comply readily
start doing it right before you feed
them make it around for the time or have
some little kitty cat treats to give
them while you're examining them but I
would really really really phone from my
heart to yours I would encourage you so
do your best to make this part of your
daily routine and thank you very much
for tuning in and again I really
appreciate all the comments you guys
leave boy it's shocking I'll bring up
the word cancer and it's like the
comments and the replies have just
increased tenfold everyone talking about
all the animals they've lost so it's
shocking the numbers it's much more
common than any of us would ever guess
thanks a lot for watching this video I
thank you Frankie thanks you and I
promise you your kitty cat thank you too
we'll see you next time out on the ranch
with dr. Lee and friends
