Purrs and Prayers for Giovanni

Hi everybody, it's me, Giovanni!

Last week, Mama packed Tylan up in his carrier to take hims to acupuncture. But then hers grabbed me and put me in a carrier, too! Me was not amused.

Once at de vet, me busied myself trying to find a way out of de room to go back home while Tylan made himself comfortable on de floor and waited for de vet to come rub his belly. 

Me was there to get a pedicure since Mama can't see well enough to do it herself at home. So, de tech took me to de back, which was really scary! When hers brought me back to Mama, hers said me was really brave. Once de tech put me on de floor, me wedged myself between de bench and de wall while me waited for Tylan to have his acupuncture.

Mama was talking de vet about me. She said they found some kind of bump on my foot. 

As Tylan was getting his pedicure, Mama picked me up and set me  on de table. And then came de needle.....it poked my foot bump, and de vet went away for a few minutes. 

And then hers came back and gave Mama de news.... Me will let Mama tell you about it.

Thank you so much to Ann of Zoolatry for the adorable badge for Giovanni.

Mom Sierra here. Giovanni was quite brave at the vet. 

When the vet came back in, she told me that Giovanni has a mast cell tumor (MCT) on his left rear foot. To say I was shocked is an understatement. I took him in for a pedicure with no concerns. I come out with a cat who may or may not have a cancerous tumor.

Giovanni is scheduled to have the tumor surgically removed on Wednesday. Depending on whether our vet can get clean margins, she may actually have to take the entire toe it's growing on/out of. 

I've been doing some research, and it looks like the majority of cutaneous (skin) MCTs in cats are benign. So let's all please pray that this is the case for Giovanni!

Our vet is concerned that Giovanni has an MCT when he is not even two years old yet. He will be prone to developing more MCTs throughout his entire life, regardless of whether this tumor is benign or malignant. So we will need to do regular body checks on him to catch any future lumps and bumps as early as possible.

I have never had a cat with any sort of tumor, and I am quite anxious about what the pathology report will show. It is going to be a long two-week wait for that report.

Please send lots of purrs and prayers to Giovanni for a benign result and for a quick recovery from his surgery. 

Thank you all so much! I will keep you posted, of course.