The cat has a bump on its neck: causes and treatment

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

For many thousands of years, cats have been living side by side with humans as pets. The owners take care of them: feed, bathe, comb and stroke. And sometimes a person may find that a cat has a lump on its neck, despite the fact that just a few days ago it was not there. Most owners immediately panic and take the cat to the vet, where they will already find out what could have caused it.

Description

It is quite clear that for no particular reason, a bump on the cat's neck under the jaw does not appear. However, some cat owners, having discovered such a formation in their pet, are in no hurry to show it to a specialist and do not take any action to treat it. In rare cases, a lump on a cat’s neck may disappear on its own without treatment, but it’s still not worth letting the development of such an education take its course and you should consult a specialist as soon as possible.

The formation of any seal or tumor is the result of a certain pathological process in the animal's body. Such a seal can beboth benign and malignant. However, even a harmless formation under the influence of certain factors can develop into a cancerous tumor.

Outwardly, the bump looks like a round or oval seal, which stands out from the rest of the skin with a reddish tint. It is easily detected by palpation. The density of a bump on a cat's neck depends on its location:

1. If the seal is between the muscles and the skin, then it will be soft and mobile.
2. The bump located in the muscle layers will be more solid and motionless.

According to medical terminology, such growths or seals are called lipomas. Those that are close to the skin can be removed very simply by performing surgery. However, if the lipoma is deeper and develops very actively, then its treatment will be more difficult. It is not worth delaying therapy, because such a seal can very quickly degenerate into a malignant one - liposarcoma, which can metastasize to nearby organs.

It is impossible to determine the nature of the seal by appearance, as it may be a common wart. Such formations can be quite large, however, the cat often does not experience pain. Without timely treatment, the bump develops very quickly and begins to interfere with the animal, and his attempts to get rid of the interfering seal on his own can only worsen the situation.

Lipoma

Lipoma is a benign formation,which can appear anywhere on the animal's body. It is able to grow, reaching an impressive size, but it does not cause pain to the cat and does not metastasize to other organs.

To the touch, the lipoma is soft and has clear boundaries. The symptomatology depends entirely on its location and the mechanical pressure on the tissues surrounding it.

Despite the fact that the lipoma is practically harmless, forming on the limbs, it can cause lameness, and located on the carotid artery can lead to death of the cat from suffocation.

The condition of an animal that has developed a lipoma is usually normal, not causing discomfort.

Causes of occurrence

In the vast majority of cases, a lump in a cat's neck occurs in old age. Most veterinarians attribute this to the aging process of the animal's body. However, there are cases when the owners found a large lump on the neck of a cat whose age did not exceed 5 years. The reasons for this can be very different. The main prerequisites for the occurrence of a pathological neoplasm include:

• bad environment;
• eating poor quality food;
• predisposition at the genetic level;
• injury or severe bruising;
• presence of subcutaneous mites in the body.

Signs of a lipoma

A bump on a cat's neck is formed between a layer of muscles and a layer of skin. There is the formation of nodules or capsules. Most often, the contentcapsules have a liquid consistency. It can be "doughy" and mobile, not causing discomfort to the animal, as well as more dense and painful. Also, the composition of subcutaneous formations may include degenerated tissues.

The temperature of the soft bump most often corresponds to the temperature of the cat's body. Dense buds tend to be hotter. If there is a compaction of an initially soft formation, the temperature of the entire body of the animal may rise and signs of intoxication of the body appear. These signs include the following: the cat is weakening, refusing to eat, showing irritability.

Special attention should be paid to buds that grow quickly.

Risk group

As mentioned above, most often the formation of bumps on the neck is prone to cats in old age. At the same time, there are the following risk factors that can cause the development of such a formation in younger individuals:

• presence of endocrine disorders;
• presence of parasites in the body;
• overweight.

Only a veterinarian can accurately determine the cause of the development of bumps under the cat's neck. He also prescribes a treatment regimen, since it is strictly forbidden to self-treat any formations on the body of an animal.

Abscess

Also, in a cat, a bump on the neck under the skin can be an abscess. In this case, the seal will be filled with pus. Most often, an abscess appears at the site of a wound or injury. Also he canbe the result of parasites that irritate the animal's skin.

Main symptoms of an abscess:

• education has a homogeneous structure;
• the temperature rises and the skin surrounding the affected area turns red;
• pressure on the formation causes pain to the cat.

Due to the fact that such a bump gives the cat inconvenience, he tries to comb it all the time. If it is not possible to reach with its paws, it rubs a sore spot on the furniture.

By its nature, an abscess is a purulent inflammation, therefore, as a result of its development, the pet begins to feel worse. The cat becomes either lethargic or too irritable, refusing to interact with the person.

Diagnosis

When a neoplasm appears in a cat's neck, you should immediately visit a veterinarian, since upon reaching a certain point it can burst. In addition, reaching a large bump can lead to suffocation.

After a professional examination and certain studies, the veterinarian will be able to determine the nature of education and prescribe a course of treatment. As studies, radiography and puncture biopsy of the contents of the cone are often performed. An x-ray can reveal the presence of metastases, and a biopsy helps determine the nature of the compaction. The further treatment of the cat depends on the results of these two procedures.

A biopsy is performed by taking pathological materials from the formation. Beforepump out part of the contents of the bump, the cat is given local anesthesia. The sample taken is sent to the laboratory for cytological examination. Based on the result of this study, the doctor makes a diagnosis and, if necessary, prescribes an operation to excise or completely remove the formation.

Treatment of benign seal

Often, doctors recommend complete removal of the lump. For this, surgery is performed. In cases where the formation is benign, there are practically no complications, since there are no metastases. If the lump is small, not prone to growth and does not cause discomfort to the cat, it may not be removed.

Abscess treatment

Before the lump on the cat's neck bursts, you should immediately start treatment. Only a veterinarian can help in this case.

There is no prior therapy for such an abscess. After the examination, the cat is immediately sent to the surgeon. He opens the seal with a scalpel and cleans the cavity from pus. After that, an antiseptic treatment of the wound is carried out. If necessary, the cat is stitched up and antibiotics are prescribed to prevent the recurrence of inflammation.

If left untreated, an abscess can burst open on its own. However, this is very dangerous for the animal, as it can lick up the pus that flows from the wound. In addition, there is a high risk of infection.

Cancer treatment

If the biopsy revealed that the bump has a malignantcharacter, her treatment includes the following steps:

• full diagnostics;
• stage of preparatory procedures;
• surgical removal;
• undergoing chemotherapy.

A growth on a cat's neck can be very dangerous. Treatment should not be delayed, since its nature can be very different: from a harmless seal to a tumor with metastases.