Jaw cancer?

Dr. Marie replied:

Oh dear. It sounds like Tiberius has been through a lot.

I get really concerned when I see moth eaten bone in a cat. Unfortunately as you mentioned, cancer is a possibility. Do you know if they biopsied the bone? This would be the only way to know if there really is cancer there. Unfortunately mouth cancer in cats is usually very aggressive and I have never had good success trying to treat it.

As far as the healing of the broken jaw goes, yes, in many cases we will just let a cat's jaw heal naturally without any wiring or hardware at all. The mouth of a cat usually is very good at healing.

Resorptive lesions really woudn't affect the jaw...just the tooth.

I have had some cases where a tooth had an ankylosed root (i.e. fused to the bone) and yes, I have had one where a jaw fractured when I tried to remove the tooth. In cases like this you just don't know if the jaw was already weakened or if the force that I used to remove the tooth caused the fracture.

However, as mentioned before, I'm really concerned about the moth eaten appearance to the bone.

If biopsies were done then this should give us an answer. If not, then yes, you could ask your vet to have a veterinary radiologist look at his xrays and give their opinion on how likely cancer is.

As far as healing, it all depends on whether or not there is cancer there. If not, then yes, the jaw should heal within a few weeks to a month or so. If there is cancer then the fracture may not heal and there may even be more dental problems.

I'm sorry for the potentially bad news.

Dr. Marie.


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Dr. Marie replied:

It is possible that bone could look moth eaten because there is infection present. Cancer is a more likely cause but infection called osteomyelitis is possible.

Don't feel that this is your fault. You're doing everything you can. If this is cancer (and we don't know for sure that it is) then it would still be there even without the surgery. At least now we know to be watching him.

Dr. Marie replied:

You're very welcome and don't be worried about asking more questions. Sometimes we can get hints about cancer on bloodwork, but not always. What you are describing with the globulins doesn't really help us one way or the other.

Dr. Marie replied:

I consider oral metacam safe for long term use in cats if necessary.

You'll likely know if he is not comfortable by monitoring his appetite. If he doesn't want to eat then this tells us that there is discomfort or pain present.