Lymph Node Inflammation in Cats

Our young Siamese - a boy - got ill sort of suddenly. Initially we thought he was trying to cough up a fur ball, but his coughing fits became more and more concerning until he started to throw up all food he ate. This occurred in the space of 36 hours.

We took him to the vet who physically examined him, listening to his breathing and ranning a blood test to exclude liver and kidneys diseases; it came back negative. I was extremely concerned and doubted it was just acid reflux as he initially suggested; in my head he had injested something which he now was trying desperately to cough up. But I was brushed off by the vet who told me he did not think I should worry as much. Reluctantly, I caved in and he was put therefore on Famotidine 5mg for 10 days, 1 pill in the morning and 1 in the evening. Two days after that I rushed him again to the vet because I was deeply concerned and unhappy about the his general condition and the coughing, which by now got so bad he'd stick his tongue out almost completely.
It was scary to see him gagging, his tummy inflating and deflating clearly too fast. It looked as if he was in much pain and the worse was the cringing sound he made when finally something came up. We had never heard him make it before and he had been with us almost 2 years by then.

Normally he'd regurgitate some viscous, transparent liquid and then he would crouch in a corner sorry for himself. But most of the times now there was absolutely nothing coming up. I called again the vet for a third time; by now 5 days had gone by together with £250 in medications and "examination" which led to absolutely nothing, as I had suspected they would.

I then asked for scan and X-ray to be taken; but we never expected to be told he might have leukemia! The vet who scanned him told us that a chest lymph node had swollen and a sack of liquid had formed which was pressing against his lungs. That was what caused the coughing and vomiting, he added. He then told us that some 60% of said liquid in the sack had been removed and part of it sent to a lab for testing, to identify exactly what it was. He added that some cells had been taken from the lymph node (or sack, I cannot remember which) by means of a needle, to be tested in lab so to determine whether it is leukemia. He said not all the times such method is sufficient to gather enough cells for testing.

All we wish to know is how to ascertain with accuracy whether he has leukemia or some other disease, which the vet said sometimes can cause swelling of lymph nodes and infections leading to the formation of sack of liquids as in him.

I am now wondering also why these vets never called us for inoculation against FeLV. We took Callisto in when he was only 3 and a half months old, with all his documents including the vaccinations booklet. All got recorded, so I just can't figure why, why we haven't been asked upon his 4/5th months of life to vaccinate him against it?

Also, we have another Siamese in the house and are now scared that she might catch the disease. We wonder whether she might have it brewing inside, for she coughs as well as he did.

We don't know what tests to ask for to determine with certainty whether Callisto has feLV, or what to do next. Any advice would be greatly appreciated here!

My short haired calico has this skin problem. She's got scabs all over her poor furry body, shes constantly scratching and licking; vomiting hairballs because of this. She eats like a horse and is pretty active. She's about 4 years old. I've recently noticed the "insides" (inner thighLolof both back legs have a huge lump in the same spot. I thought they were lymphnodes but my vet said no, told me to give her some benadryl and sent us on our way. Thank goodness her visits are only $38 ea time! Lo Needless to say, after 1 month she is no better and I feel that these pills are doing her more harm than anything.

My 17 year old himilayan has swollen lymph nodes that come and go. This has gone on since December of last year. His blood work is normal. He had 2 teeth pulled in july. This did not resolve anything. When the lymph nodes in his neck really swell up he becomes withdrawn, reduced appetite, and low energy. Bathroom habits unchanged.

My 6 month old cat has been sneezing alot, has eye discharge, and has swollen lymph nodes in his neck and arm pits. This has been going on for 3 days now. He lives with other cats and a dog. Everyone else seems fine. He is around a lot of cigarette smoke. We had a flea problem. And he does not have any vaccines.

Hi, I have a cat that has been sick for about 6 months now, it all started with a weight lost from last April from 4.4KG (highest) to 3.2KG (lowest).

She wasn't eating much as well as accompanied by fever, we first did blood works and could not find anything. We were giving dosage of antibiotics as well as mouth fed (for 2 months). After 2 months fever was still present so we did x-ray and ultra sound. Ultrasound showed enlarged lyphmnodes. Vet suspects it's lymphoma but cannot be certain without a biopsy. Cat is pretty old (11, 12 now) so I wanted to try before we open her up. We did 2 courses of steroids (shots and mouth fed) and it didn't show much improvement. Vet said she cannot prescribe more unless we open her up and get a complete lymph node extraction for biopsy, we felt like we were out of options as the cards weight kept dropping so we agreed to it. During the operation when the vet was extracting the extremely enlarged lymph nodes, the vet almost could not stop the bleeding because the nodes were so large and it had arteries all over them. But she was able to close up the bleeding and she has recovered from the surgery now. Report went to oncologist and 1/4 said it's possible to be lymphoma and 3/4 said they did not see cancer cells within. We did 2 months of mouth fed cancer pills (I forgot the name, we go back twice a week) but her weight just kept dropping and didn't show huge sign of improvement.

6 month old kitten, presenting with swollen mandibular lymph nodes, nasal discharge. Kitten has been on clavamox for treatment of respiratory infection since 3/7. I'll add that the kitten just had an eye enucleation on 3/12 due to severe eye infection in the left eye. Nasal discharge and sneezing have lessened since upping the dose of clavamox per veterinarian instructions post surgery. He has had swollen lymph nodes since he was very small. When we found him both eyes were badly infected, severe hypoglycemia (was having seizures and slipped into a coma), severe constipation, and upper respiratory infection. All of these issues have been resolved except for the respiratory infection. When we had him neutered we had some tissue that was covering the eye removed in an attempt to save the left eye. Unfortunately in the next few weeks the tissue grew back and we started having the respiratory issues again. So we went to another veterinarian to have the eye looked at. He dissected the eye a little bit to see if there was a better option than removing the eye. But there was not. Should I be concerned about the lymph nodes being swollen or should I justgivethtet enucleated eye more time to heal? The surgery site is healing phenomenally! And the respiratory issues seem to be going away.

I have an 18yr old calico, I took her to the vet feeling like she was having mouth pain/problems. Has swollen lymph’s on neck I think stromitis, because of thick mucus while trying to eat. The vet did not look in her mouth at all she was scared to be bit just ignored what I felt about my cat. Vet said she has lymphoma and gave me steroids. It’s Been 3 weeks and she is getting worse. The lymph nodes have doubled in size. can that be caused from stomitis? I am taking her back This week and complaining that they didn’t listen. Now she can’t eat or drink. I am concerned by just throwing a diagnosis out the vet has caused a lot of damage to my geriatric cat.

A single lymph node was swollen last week in my cats neck, got her checked by that time it had went down. A different (but still single one) closer to her ear is now up. Why are they going up and down?

Logan’s appetite has decreased to barely eating his wet food over several weeks, but last year it slightly decreased as the weather changed. This past week he’s eaten less of the dry food that’s always out. With a big change in work schedules we’re not sure if his activity levels have changed. His neck looks swollen on both sides and his stomach looks like it’s gotten smaller. He does have an appetite because he’s been trying to eat out chips and managed to steal several French fries before we could get to him last night.

i have a 3 and a half year old cat whom i found abandoned by its mother he looked so near death i didnt expect him to make it, but he did and here we are years later, only troubling thing is since ive had him he had lymph nodes larger than the normal cat, i have other cats and i dont even feel anything there with them! but as he got older they got bigger, hes so underwieght and we had a flea problem when moving into a unknown to us infested home. and thought maybe thats why he lost wieght, but we gave him deworming medicene and im suspecting that wasnt it at all.. i dont know what to do i love my little guy and want him healthy.

i have a six week old kitten which i found abandoned a few hours after he was born so i practically raised the little one. at six week he is severely underweight (only 200grams). he was doing fine despite of being small, feeds well according to his size. but two days ago, he had difficulty swallowing and he had a fever so i took him to the vet and prescribed him meloxicam (.1ml for the first dose, the .05 succeeding days, for 5 days). his fever was gone. but a day after, he's still not swallowing well, not pooping for two days and urine is bright yellow. then i discovered why he was having trouble swallowing, his under chin is swollen, and i noticed his left eye became cloudy, he was teary eyed. then today his right paw became swollen, too. i think the vet didn't really take a good look at him because he was just a small rescued animal. i am very heartbroken as of the moment watching the little fella become weaker by the moment.

My cats lymph nodes seem to be swollen. Under his neck and also behind his back legs you can feel them. He was missing for 4 days and came home last night struggling to walk. Very skinny and weak. He is eating and drinking just fine even hoping on and off the bed, not as well as he used to, but not sure if the swelling of his lymph nodes will go down once he gets a little stronger? Doesn’t seem sick at all still doing happy paws just not sure if the lymph nodes are very serious.

Dog bite on stray cat. Recently took in stray cat who must have gotten into a fight with a dog. Had punctures on both sides of face. One side has healed. The other side I have been actively soaking the wound daily with a warm compresses. I dab a wound antiseptic after each soaking. And I can get away with triple antibiotic until he washes it off. I have been giving him a small dose of zithromax in soft food with a tiny amount of prednisone. This seems to be helping with the wound. I'm concerned because the one side is pretty swollen. I know its still itchy because hes still scratching at it occasionally. His appitite is good, hes drinking plenty of water. H Es been through the vets on a neutering program. So he's had rabbies shot, and a flea and ear mite treatment. And hes trying to make friends with my other two cats. The male has almost made friends, at least tolerates him. My female on the other hand is completely not liking this change. Hissing, growling, at the established male, at the new male, and at me. What do I do for both situations.

My cat was diagnosed with herpes on March 13, 2018 and given a shot of Covenia and antibiotic ointment for his eyes. He is doing better and his eyes look much better. (not completely free from running but better) Yesterday, I took him back to the vet because his left lymph node is enlarged under his chin (back a bit toward the ear). I didn't noticed this before. He is eating well and looks like he feel pretty good. The vet gave him an Rx for Clavamox to be given for 2 weeks. He isn't sure what it is. He said it could be the Covenia didn't take care of whatever infection it was or it could be cancer! Im so scared. My cat was a stray, tested neg for FIV and Flv and is only about 1 to 1.5 years old. What are the chances it could be cancer? I just lost my Mini Schnauzers, one to hystiocytic sarcoma and my other one from diabetes and cushings. I am so worried.

Female feline, swollen Lymph Nodes under her spine behind her heart. It is forcing her heart to drop down to her upper rib cage. She is eating constantly and gets stressed when I go to bed. She is usually eating soft food. She has lost weight too quickly and keeps losing more weight. We did an Xray and that is what revealed my explanation of what is happening with Smokey. Our Vet does not know what is wrong. Smokey is the runt of the litter she came from. Last year she kept getting conjunctivitis in her left eye. A few years back she developed a bacterial infection under her skin on her neck. One of our Vets did surgery to removed the bacteria. He did a great job. Since then she prefers only soft food. Can you help me understand what I should do next? Thank you. God bless you in Jesus' Name.

My cat received a sharp blow to the neck the other day when or screen door went to close as she tried to get out. It injured her enough that ahe did not try to run when i went to bring her back in. This morning she woke her lymph node on the side the door hit swelled accompanied by edema of the soft tissue surrounding as well as elevated white blood cell count and slight fever. She is 1 yr old. Has been spayed, all vaccines up to date and negative screening for fiv/felv. Her brother died at 5mos from large cell lymphoma. As its the weekend i can get no test results for days and i did not inform the veterinarian of the injury as it only occured to me later. Can trauma to the lymph node cause swelling, edema but also fever with elevated white blood cell count if damage was severe enough? Does fever and white blood cell count only point to infection?

Read more at: https://wagwalking.com/cat/condition/lymph-node-inflammation

My cat is 6 years old. He has not been eating or drinking for about a couple of weeks. The vet has now kept him in as he had a temperature to. They found a lump and some kind of mass. One is saying it's not cancer, another say it is still a possibility. They are now awaiting the results of the biopsy and will contact me. I hate the waiting but I know it's the right thing to do.

My kitten shadow, is approximately 4 or 5 months old and the left lymph gland is swollen and he’s throwing up, tired and not eating. He’s been like this for 2 days. He was an outside kitty that showed up a few months ago and never left. So I don’t know what the history of his mother and father is. Any advice? Please? He’s normally a fun and outgoing kitty that runs around all day, and I’m worried.

5 yr old male Roo, recent unknown laceration on tail, deep. We have not taken him to vet but have flushed the wound, and used Vetrimycin antimycrobial gel, colloidal silver. He is eating and drinking, urinating and pooping fine. In good spirits and lets us handle him. He gets overwhelmed at the vet and has had a couple of bad experiences. It is the 5th day of the wound and it looks to be healing with no sign of infection, but tonight we noticed a hugh grapesized hard mass which seems to be a swollen lymph gland under his front right leg. He lets us feel it with no indication of discomfort. I'm guessing it is a concentration of some kind of infection and he needs antibiotics but we have had bad experiences with overuse of antibiotics possible not being the type that should have been used. I know testing can be done but we have to watch our money with the amount of testing and dont have a great deal of confidence in our current vet choices. Can you offer advice and not think we are terrible keepers.

R sided submandibular lymphadenopathy
Reddish mucus in conjunctiva
Foul smelling breath
Redness in gingiva
Eating, drinking well
Diarrhea intermittently
Urinating normally
Cat is 1 year old neutered male (adopted from shelter at age 4 months) and has been tested negative for panleuko

I wonder if you could help me please? We have a beautiful red Burmese cat of 5 years of age. He is an indoor cat and is as healthy as an ox however 2 week’s ago, I noticed his glands below his jaw line were both significantly swollen. I took him to the vet, who said it might be tonsillitis and gave him a steroid injection and requested I brought him back a few days later. On this occasion I saw a different vet who said they hadn’t reduced in size so thought it may be an infection and put him on a week of twice daily antibiotics. We went back after the week and she suggested a blood test which we did and he was so very distressed. Anyhow she then said he would need a niopsy to see if it was cancer however I wouldn’t want to put him through chemo and since the results may not even give us a result either way, we have decided to cancel the biopsy. He eats extremely well, fresh steamed fish and cat crunchies and seems lively and happy however has started to lick the walls for some unknown reason. We thought we would keep him happy and wait for changes however are unsure if we are being unduly cruel. Just not sure what to do. Thank you

6 weeks ago- My cat was attacked by possibly a raccoon or opossum. Was not a cat fight only hair on ground was my cats. I took him in right away vet found 5 bite wounds and laserations all on left side of body. Shot of antibiotics and issolation in to my room for 8 days- he recovered well. Then about 10 days ago- lethargy lose of appetite and swollen lymph glands on back of legs. Back to ER vet--Antibiotics again for 7 days- he started feeling better- yea! but on day 6 of antibiotics he took a turn straight downhill again. In 1 day--Help with information....

My cat brought a kitten strangling. He is so little and barely a month old, somehow we could save the kitten. But he has some scratch marks on neck and leg. The leg had some tiny pimples like stuff that did cause him a lot of pain, he was crying and could barely sleep. I used betadine to clean the area and a lot of white substance came out and now it's healed and he was fine. Suddenly today I saw another inflammation around his neck where another scratch is, now I did the same cleaned the area and used betadine. But, still it looks painful and I hope he gets well. Any advice?

I had a feral cat that became sick the vet told me he had enlarged lymph nodes gave it a shot of antibotic and some pain meds ...she also mentioned cancer ..but she wanted to see if she is eating and drinking well she is eating and drinking and playing being a curious kitty kat ...plus she was limping at first now seems to be walking fine no limping so is this a good sign ....

My one year old cat just had exploratory surgery. A mass was removed but unfounded for lymphoma. The vet said his GI track has swollen lymph nodes throughout. Liver and spleen normal. Blood work looks good...he had a high fever 105 previous to surgery now he's on two antibiotics and was given 72 hours to improve or euthanasia was suggested. He's not eating or drinking or voidingBM. The vet and interak medicine have ruled out various illnesses. What could be wrong? My mother is a pediatrician for 50 years and thinks viral.

My cat has swollen glands under his jaw, both sides. Seems lethargic and has had 10+ Grass(?) ticks in the last month (its winter and he has tick spray on which helps but not enough to fully stop them) about 2 months ago he was very sneezey
No other symptoms can be seen.

My cat's neck is swollen and he cries when I touch it. It happened just recently. He is about 2 years and 9 months old and he has no other visible symptoms. He still eats normally.

I just noticed a swollen lymph node under the left side of my cats chin. It's probably between the size of a peanut and a small marble. He doesn't have any other symptoms, though maybe a slightly increased appetite lately. He's got a history of some mysterious anemia that the docs can't figure out, but his gums and ears appear pink.

The vet said my cat has an inflammation but cannot pin point where. Also her lymphocyte count was over 14,0000. When the blood was sent to a pathologist he said he saw the inflammation but does not know where
And that it can be the beginning of leukemia but did not diagnose it as that because the cells are still white. What are the chances it can be cancer and what should I be worried with?

My cat lymph nodes are swollen and lossing hair ?
He was an outside cat and I brought him in my home. I got him fixed in Feb in 2018 and after I got him fixed he got lazy and started losing his fur everywhere and now he lymph nodes are swollen and is starting to go towards his ear. He is eating fine as I can tell. He has lost weight simce he got fixed. He is my baby. And I'm scarred. I'm broke and can't take him to the vet.

My cat’s front leg swells frequently, probably off and on for the past year. I’ve noticed that his back leg has started swelling as well 2 days ago. It has gone down since then. Today I noticed a large lump under his chin. Either than that, he has a healthy appetite. He has good energy but I’ve noticed that he does seem a little more sleepy than normal. He is bottle fed and I’ve raised him since he was 2 days old so I’m not sure if it’s a stress reaction whenever I leave the house, allergies or something more serious. He also chews at his skin and has 2 little bald spots on his back leg joints from grooming.

Kitten about four months has swollen lymphnodes in his neck. He was put on anti boitics for a week. We did as the doctor said and he was getting better while on the anti biotic, but since we took him off, his voice has gone away and now his eyes are watery and bothering him. Lymph nodes are still enlarged. What can this be? He was tested for filv and fiv and it came back negative and he has had his first set of boosters.