Hi Any cat owners -
My 15 year old girl cat developed an odd problem 4 weeks ago. She developed a large lump under her tongue. Not causing her any pain and only noticed it because her tongue was hanging out side of her mouth!
Took her to vets, she had a little operation and they confirmed it was a blocked salivary gland and that it was very unusual, they drained it and "hoped" it wouldn't fill up again.
It did. Almost immediately. So they rang a specialist in Harrogate who said this happens a lot in dogs but he had never come across it in cats. He suggested making a 1cm incision under her tongue and that 90% of the time this drained away and it never healed up. If it healed up then plan b would be detailed, tricky operation to remove the salivery gland very tricky in a cat.

Took her in, had the incision operation, worked for about 10 days and then it has just started to come up again so obviously incision has healed.

I am REALLY loathe to traipse my baby up to Harrogate (2 hours away) to see this specialist for a consultation (my vets don't have the equipment to do this op), then back again for ANOTHER operation, which may or may not be successful. This will be three lots of aneasthetic in as many weeks for a 15 years (albeit otherwise healthy) moggy.

The alternative suggested by vet was to let it build up over a course of weeks and see if the back pressure "cleared" the blockage. Obviously downside of this is she will have an increasingly bigger lump under her tongue. It causes her no pain and didn't shop her eating, other than she seems to drink a little more (not surprisingly).

Anyone come across this or can advise please?????:help::help::help:

Many thanks:)

your vet has already suggested that it's very rare, and even the specialist has never seen it in a cat

do you have any other information on what happens next if it doesn't go down of it's own accord?

will leaving it to see what happens make too much mess for the specialist to be able to carry out the necessary procedure effectively?

by 'traipse', do you mean you'd be going by public transport?

No I havent come across this before and it sounds rather stressfull. I understand your not wanting to travel to Huddersfield (my cats dont travel well either) but unfortunately I dont see you have a choice as if its gets bigger then she will be uncomfortable.
It may be worth you posting this on a cat forum such as Catchat as you will be more likely to find someone with a similar problem.

PM "Medusa" to see if she has come across anything like this?

Cats are quite often very poor travelers and get very stressed by both going in a basket and going in a car Strix. It's pretty rare to find a cat that travels as well as most dogs do, and for that reason I can well understand tplongy's reticence about going as far as Harrogate with the little one.

However, I'm not sure that you have much alternative, I'm sorry to say. This is not something that most vets, local or otherwise, will have the experience to treat because it's so rare. Maybe you could ask your vet if there's anyone closer who may be able to help?

I've had a blocked salivary gland myself and can tell you that even if it doesn't hurt the feeling of pressure isn't much fun. Thankfully the stone (I didn't know that you can get stones in your saliva in the same way as kidney stones, bladder stones, gall stones etc. but apparently you can!) that caused mine hasn't been in the position to block the outflow of the gland for a few years.

I agree that having so many anaesthetics in so short a time isn't the best thing, but the thing that you have to remember is that if you've had all of the relevant health and blood tests done prior to the anaesthetics then it's no more dangerous than it is for other cats.

The most important thing is that if she's going to need another operation at some time, right now she's 15 and healthy. In a few months time she may not be healthy enough to withstand the anaesthetic.

Crossed fingers that you get her sorted out soon.

The vets gave me two options if the incision didn't work:

(1) Let it build up and see if the back pressure clears it out itself, this may take 3-4 weeks but keep an eye on her in the meantime and if she seems in discomfort then go to:

(2) An operation which even the specialist in Harrogate hadn't ever done on a cat which mean going into the back of the throat and removing the salivary gland completely. This will be and I quote "an absolute nightmare to do" because it will be tiny, very tricky and again quote "should" do the trick!

By traipse I mean a two hour car journey. Neither of my cats are particularly happy travelling and our vets is only about 2 minutes in the car. I can't imagine what a 2 hour car journey there and 2 hour back would do to her stress levels as Medusa says!.

However obviously i WILL do it if I have to, I just wandered if anybody else had come across it or could give advice. Thank you all for your comments.

I hadn't heard of CATCHAT so will try than.

:)your vet has already suggested that it's very rare, and even the specialist has never seen it in a cat

do you have any other information on what happens next if it doesn't go down of it's own accord?

will leaving it to see what happens make too much mess for the specialist to be able to carry out the necessary procedure effectively?

by 'traipse', do you mean you'd be going by public transport?

Cats are quite often very poor travelers and get very stressed by both going in a basket and going in a car Strix. It's pretty rare to find a cat that travels as well as most dogs do, and for that reason I can well understand tplongy's reticence about going as far as Harrogate with the little one.I know :confused: why do you think I'm asking if she's okay for transport? :confused:

what on earth is your point?
Yes she is OK to transport but it will stress her out.
Yes I will take her for the operation if I have to but I was just looking for constructive suggestions?? Never mind with the chuffing scratching head!

my point is that I don't need Medusa to (somewhat condescendingly) point out that cats get stressed when travelling - and I was asking about your transport arrangements as I don't assume that everybody has a car, and having friends in Harrogate I may have been able to offer you a lift if you'd have been contemplating making the journey by any other means

Sorry for being concerned

I don't think Medusa was being condescending at all, I have always found her to be very helpful actually.

I do have a car thank you. Sorry if I misunderstood your post. If you read all the other responses to my post, your own tone is easily misread.

I have also registered and posted onto catchat so hopefully might get a response. A friend has also suggested a second opinion with her vet who may know a specialist a bit nearer by.
:)

the post where I used 'tone' is quoting medusa, not you ;)

there are probably a few threads which may be of use in helping to calm your cat for the journey, and you can also try the petmeds forum to see if anybody knows a specialist who's more accessible

I really sympathise with you - we had to take our dog all the way to Thurnscoe with a back injury. He's used to long car journeys, but with his spine in the condition it was in, every movement the car made sent searing pain through him - that was a hellish journey, and I was sorely tempted to get out and carry him the last half mile as the road was in worse condition than some of those in Sheffield - we had to drive up it at 10mph and pull over frequently to let other vehicles pass

well the other thing is that I don't actually KNOW she will be a bad traveller but just assuming it will be stressful for her - but bless her she has had such a rough time in the last 12 months including:

about 1 visit a month with gingivitus over a 4 month period, resulting eventually in a major operation to take all her teeth out to prevent it reoccuring

so thats about 8 visits including check ups, then on top of that some stray moggy got hold of her and beat her up so she got an infection blah blah, resulting in yet more visits to the vet....

so bless her, she has such a lovely soft nature they all adore her at the vets, but my heart sank when it came up again, I just wanted her to be alright without any more stress.

If it comes down to it then I might try something to calm her, first option would be to find a "specialist" in Sheffield though:)

you can try emailing these to see if they can suggest who you could be referred to, or you could try trawling through all the websites for vets in the area and their fields of expertise

http://www.rcvs.org.uk/Templates/System/FAVSearch.asp?NodeID=89660&FAVSearchType=2#advanced