Well this is unfortunate ... (pet misfortune)

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BMWTurboDzl

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Apr 15, 2010
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Our big brown Main Coon likely has injection-site sarcoma (Cancer). It is typically caused by the reaction to Rabies and FIV vaccinations. The probability of having this happen is 1/10,000-30,000. He's currently fine and the mass isn't very large but it's basically a death sentence even with surgery and radiation/chemo. I'm talking 2 yrs max. My wife is taking it hard and it's slowing hitting me. The only good thing is that he's 11yrs old rather than say 7yrs.

Ugh.
 
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Sorry to hear about this development....11 years is a long time and I like to think a good life. One can't really explain rare occurrences meaning you guys didn't do anything wrong with the vaccinations....
 
Sorry 'bout your kitty's prospects. My cat is probably ~17 years old. Don't know for sure. Was my brother's stray. Just moved in with him one day. When he passed away she became my semi-feral house kitty. She's healthy but very elderly.

We all have our own kismet.
 
You can't kick yourself for giving the cat the vaccines. You're only doing the best for them! Do you have any pictures of him?

One of our cats is half Main Coon. His Mother was a pure bred Main Coon but we have no idea what the Dad was. He's totally jet black with bright orange eyes. He actually just looks like a mini Main Coon. He's generally quite anti social unless it's 5am and he decides to sit on your chest 'kneeding dogh' and purring as loud as he possibly can in your face.
 
So sorry to hear this. Love on him all you can and give him the best life ever for his remaining days!

We lost our 12 year old Doberman in January when her stomach twisted (common with large chested animals.) My wife and I did everything to lower the odds of that happening, but it still did. Only thing we didn't do was the plexy surgery that sews the stomach to the wall to prevent flipping (we didn't know about it until recently, unfortunately.) My wife is still crying at times. She was the best dog ever. Miss her so much.
 
John105 said:
Sorry to hear about this development....11 years is a long time and I like to think a good life. One can't really explain rare occurrences meaning you guys didn't do anything wrong with the vaccinations....
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The sad thing is that we may have. 4-5 yrs ago we gave him a 3-yr adjuvanted vaccine (Rabies). There is a casual link between adjuvanted vaccines and FISS. We have always generally been against yearly vaccinations for rabies but so many vets won't see an animal if it's not up to date on them. I mention this because over the past couple of years we had some issues with this guy which we thought were medical but behavioral so he was at the vet 3-4 times a years until last November. If I had only known.
 
I dread the day we lose our tabby. She's part of the family for sure.

We got her all her shots when she was found in a field and she really hasn't been back to the vet since other than 1 issue with something stuck in her stomach. My dad always raised animals that way so I've kind of done the same. Right or wrong who knows.
 
Well the thing with Rabies is that it only takes that one time, FIV is a long term problem. It does really suck I know, I am almost $10,000 deep in on our tuxedo cat who has urinary issues and hopefully this is the last scare for a while. He is currently 7.
 
BMWTurboDzl said:
Our big brown Main Coon likely has injection-site sarcoma (Cancer). It is typically caused by the reaction to Rabies and FIV vaccinations. The probability of having this happen is 1/10,000-30,000. He's currently fine and the mass isn't very large but it's basically a death sentence even with surgery and radiation/chemo. I'm talking 2 yrs max. My wife is taking it hard and it's slowing hitting me. The only good thing is that he's 11yrs old rather than say 7yrs.

Ugh.
Click to expand...

If your plans include some form of treatment, I cannot recommend going to Auburn University enough. Yes, Athens (UGA) is possibly more convenient to you since you live on the northside, but it might be a wash. We can get to AU in about 1:15 without jeopardizing speeding tickets from the Coweta area.

I assure you the people at Bailey Small Animal Hospital (Auburn's vet school) will do everything possible, treat you and your pet like kings/queens and you will get an experience like no vet around you.

We learned all of this last year when we took one of our cats there after $2k+ in failed visits to local vets. Within 90 minutes, the people at Auburn turned it from us thinking our cat had some neuro issues to diagnosing an erratic heart rhythm, to which 3 days later she had a pacemaker implanted and has been good ever since. At the 6-week check-up, they said the pacemaker was working much more than they anticipated, further confirming the cat wouldn't have lived much longer without it.

No, it wasn't cheap, but no local vet diagnosed this, they had no clue what was going on with her and if any private clinic would have done it, it would have been 2x-3x the cost we incurred at Auburn without the level of care, both to us and the cat.

Here's the number if you're interested-

Bailey Small Animal Hospital
334.844.4690

You will probably have to leave a message, they WILL call you back as soon as they can. They stay busy. They have people working there, usually more than one at the front desk, they stay busy. And the front desk won't have two young girls at it watching Tik-Tok, not caring if you come in or not.

Also, just another FYI, they do "regular" vet visits for your animals and they have a 24/7/365 ER and it's very, very economical compared to anything around Atlanta or anywhere else. It's about $180 to walk in the ER with your pet versus $400+. And you will likely be seen within an hour versus 4-6 hours during off-hours at some emergency vet clinic near you. BTDT....
 
BMWTurboDzl said:
The sad thing is that we may have. 4-5 yrs ago we gave him a 3-yr adjuvanted vaccine (Rabies). There is a casual link between adjuvanted vaccines and FISS. We have always generally been against yearly vaccinations for rabies but so many vets won't see an animal if it's not up to date on them. I mention this because over the past couple of years we had some issues with this guy which we thought were medical but behavioral so he was at the vet 3-4 times a years until last November. If I had only known.
Click to expand...

Great. The cat we did the pacemaker on had the 3-year rabies shot in Nov 2022 when we started taking her to the vets around here to try to figure out what was going on with her.

We generally don't take our cats to the vet, so they don't get rabies vaccinations either.
 
Sad news.
My wife -the Cat Authority- read that indoor cats "really don't need vaccinations" as it takes some kind of toll on them.
Still, she wanted Daisey to have the distemper shot.
The last kitty lasted 20 healthy years so I'm betting she knows what to do.
 
My wife has a track record for busting life expectancies of pets AND sinking mid-4 figures in them in their last years. She put about $6k in a chow mix dog she had when we met. That dog lived to be about 16, IIRC. The vet we were going to said he knew of no one that would have put the money in her that we did.... and we lived in a very well-off area at the time.

We have almost $10k in the pacemaker cat but she's been a good cat. She is very good-looking, I've always said we should have pursued some advertising gigs with her or something but I've also heard that you never make any money off of pets that way either.

Since our pets stay inside 100% except for screen porch time, we generally don't get vaccines for them.
 
At 7 years old, my Norwegian Elkhound dog came darn close to dying after a set of vaccinations. Liver and kidney failure, enlarged heart and so on. Took heroic effort by the 24/7 animal hospital to keep her alive. So we staggered the next set of vaccinations. Not as bad, but she still went down hard each time. She's nearly 15 now, with 7 years of chronic problems. The idea that vaccinations are good for an indoor dog in a private remote home, is insane.

Oh, and Maine Coon cats are awesome! Mine would follow me anywhere. Even up the ladder to the 2 story roof, when I would work on my antennas. Smart, loyal and fun. He lived to 19 or so.

Vj3aRdDm.jpg
 
The dirty little secret is that after several boosters the animal is immune for life for FIV, distemper, parvo etc. The only thing you really need is rabies every 3 years. This comes from the ivory tower vet schools not me. I sold animal vaccines for 35 years and never really heard of site sarcomas as much of a problem. I've been retired for 10 yrs so maybe some of these vaccines are different now.
The best rabies vaccine to use is Imrab. It's from the original seed line developed at the Pasteur Institute. It is the same as the human vaccine and also the treatment if you are bitten by a rabid animal. There is a rabies vaccine on the market from a company you all have heard of for the last 3 years that protects 87% against rabies. Wouldn't you rather have one that protects 99%?
This Friday my little poodle is have cruciate repair so I'll be joining you big spenders on vet care.
Animals are truly our best friends!
 
Almost has this happen on my Maine Coon cat.. Vet wanted to remove it, which would have shortened his huge fluffy tail. Fortunately, when we were on vacation he bit it off, so no surgery was required. No more shots for my cats!
 
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For years Ihad a Vet [he retired] He would say let me put the animal down the aminal is old and in pain keeping the animal alive through treatments is cruel. I really respect the Vet. I miss every dog , cat and horse I have ever had,,, Losing them hurts.
 
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