Vet lost the lump!

My cat had surgery last Thursday to have a cyst on his toe removed to see if it was cancerous, and today I got a call from the vet saying they couldn't find the cyst when they went to prepare it for going to the lab for testing. They said they remember putting it in the test tube, but cannot figure out what happened to it.

My cat has had this cyst for a good 6 months to a year. It is about the size of a fair sized pee on the top of his toe, pink like the tissue on the pads of his feet, and soft looking. He has never had any other symptoms, but the cyst has grown a little bit in this time.

The vet first did a fluid test but the results came back inconclusive. The cyst, even though it looks soft like its full of fluid, was hard so they couldn't get a very good sample.

The blood work they did on the day of the surgery came back normal, but am not sure whether I can really get a definitive answer as to Floyd's health since they lost the cyst.

The vet is really trying to reassure me that he is probably fine since he doesn't have any other symptoms, his blood work was normal, and the cyst came of his toe very easily; it wasn't growing deep into his flesh or bone.

I have a few questions.

How much of an indicator is blood work in determining if he is sick or healthy? Could he have cancer even though is blood work is normal and he has no symptoms?

They say the only thing they can recommend doing now is to monitor his toe to see if the cyst grows again, and to regularly check his glands for swelling. Is this the only thing that can really be done now?

At first I was under the impression that they performed the blood work before his surgery because he is getting older and they wanted to make sure he was going to be able to handle the surgery. But now it is like they are putting a lot of weight behind the blood work indicating he is probably healthy. I am starting to feel like maybe I should have just got the blood work in the first place and keep a close watch on his cyst for changes and on his health in general (glands, whatever) before doing the surgery. It would have cost a lot less potentially.

That brings up something else I am not sure about. At first they only offered to refund the money I would have paid for actually sending the cyst for testing. I told them I would like to speak with the Dr. first to figure out what we'er supposed to do now about figuring out Floyd's health and that we could figure out the money later.

So after the doctor tried to reassure me everything is probably okay I said I didn't think I should have to pay anything for the entire operation since the point of the operation was to determine if he had cancer or not, which they can't seem to determine now. They got back to me later saying they agreed, but still wouldn't give me a refund for the blood work since they say it gives some indication that he doesn't have cancer, and that he is at an age where he should be getting blood work done on a regular basis anyway.

Do you have an opinion about this money issue? Should cats who are around 7 or 8 years old start getting blood work done? I can sort of justify paying for the blood work if this is something he should be getting anyway, but I'm kind put out about them being willing to try and get me to pay for the surgery if I didn't disagree to. I'm also not even sure, since they are putting so much weight on the blood work, that the treatment approach we took was even the right one, so I don't know if I really want to pay them anything.

I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to me. I hope my questions and concerns are clear enough, and that I haven't written too much.

Kind Regards,
Kevin

Hi Dr. Marie,

Thanks for responding!

You said you would normally remove a fluid filled lump to avoid the risk of it popping and getting infected. Would you normally do the same for a lump that was more hard than fluid filled, for the same reasons? The first cytology results came back inconclusive because they couldn't get enough fluid out of the cyst; it was actually pretty hard, not full of fluid.

I guess it doesn't really matter anymore if they didn't need to remove it since I'm not being charged for the surgery! I feel okay now about paying for the blood work because it probably should have been done even if they decided not to remove the lump. Even though the blood work isn't definitive, it probably would have still been a good idea to do the blood work for getting some indication of white blood cells, etc. not to mention him being at an age when he should get it done anyway.

So I guess my only question is whether their recommendation of just monitoring his health from this point forward is probably sufficient, or are there other tests that are commonly done given his situation?

Kevin