My cat has a liver mass. Should I get a biopsy? Will it hurt her?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. The further testing may help with determining what the primary cause is so that treatment can be administered that will help with the condition. However, if you do not want to put Kai through a major surgery or chemotherapy, the further diagnostics that have been recommended would then be more for your own knowledge so you know what the cause is. You could also keep Kai comfortable and start her on liver supplements without doing the further diagnostics and hope for the best. If you are determined to find out what the problem is, then I would proceed with the recommended testing that the veterinarian discussed with you. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. Please take the time to mark this question as helpful or not as it helps us to improve on the quality of our answers to other pet owners. Thank you kindly!

A surgical biopsy is most likely to be diagnostic (get enough cells to tell us the type of mass). Depending on the location, your vet may be able to do a traumatic catheterization or an ultrasound-guided fine needle aspirate. However, some of these masses or tumors could be spread of cells are spread during these types of tests. They are less invasive than surgery, but include the risk of spreading the tumor. They will also require heavy sedation or anesthesia.

I'm sorry your cat may have lymphoma. The surgery and biopsies aren't very painful, she will be under anesthesia, and they will give her some pain medication afterwards. The danger of it depends on her health status, and her vet can give you the best estimate of this. Any surgery carries risk, but it can still be safe in a cat this age. Personally I'd do the surgery first. I hope this helps!

I think a biopsy is worth doing, it's relatively very brief and non invasive, it will give you an answer regarding the type of tumor, this way you can know for sure if there is any hope. from the sound of it though, it's probably a malignant tumor and there is probably nothing that can be done to stop it or treat it, at some point you will need to stop the tests and accept it.

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Liver enlargement means that the liver is bigger than it should be. It could be because of liver inflammation due to infection (bacterial or viral) or toxins ingestion. In young cats like Arya liver tumors are very uncommon, but enlargement of one liver lobe could be caused by a liver abscess or a cyst. The best way to assess liver size is ultrasound scan and/or x-ray. Blood test tells about liver function. In other words, it tells if the liver, ,despite being enlarged or diseased, is still able to maintain its function. Blood test also can assess the extent of liver damage. It is hard to say anything about the prognosis without knowing why the liver is enlarged and what are the blood results. In general, liver have huge capacity to recover from any insult, but again it really depends what has happened.

Thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach with your question about Haddie. I'm sorry that she isn't doing well. I always recommend looking at the quality of life to make a determination as to whether or not to put an animal down. It's good that she is eating and drinking, and while she is jaundice, I would be more concerned about her quality of life if she wasn't eating or drinking and was very lethargic. It may be worth trying another round of the Ursodiol. If it doesn't help and she appears to get worse, then I would consider putting her down. I hope this helps!

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Milly. I will typically start with a procedure known as a fine needle aspirate. I use a small needle to collect a sample of cells to evaluate under the microscope. This can help to diagnose the mass. It is not as accurate as a biopsy, but it generally gives a lot of information. The cat needs to hold still and cooperate though. So cats are different to draw blood on awake. This may have been why the recommendation was made to anesthetize her and collect all the samples at once. I hope this information helps!