Zipprer's Ear

In November, we decided to get Gaby fixed. When we took her in, we also took Zipper. He had developed a sore on his ear and it wasn't getting better. The vet looked at it and said it was most likely a cancer spot; given the fact he is a white cat and they sunburn so easily. He told us to watch it for a few weeks and see what happened. It got rapidly got worse.

Then two weeks ago, I came home from work to find a piece had fallen off, with his ear. So I called the vet and got him an appointment as soon as they could get him in.  Also, the night before his appointment, we felt a sore starting on his other ear. 

Here is a before picture the morning of his surgery. He wasn't happy because we had locked up all the food and water the night before and both cats were convinced they were on the brink of starvation. Until Gaby saw the cat carrier. When Josh put Zipper in it, she was a blur as she ran upstairs and hid under the bed. She did the same thing when I brought him home that afternoon.

  

I went to the vet on my lunch break to see if I could pick him up early. The front desk receptionist thought he was still too sleepy, but then the assistant saw me and told me I could take him now, while he was still to groggy to bite. I think he had let them know his displeasure earlier in the morning and they didn't want to see it again.

They were able to burn the newer sore off of his one ear, but they had to completely cut the bad one out, ear and all. They actually saved more ear than we originally thought; but there's no hiding it, he only has one and 3/4 of an ear now. It seemed tender for a few days, but now he's back to his normal self. We are hopeful they got it all, but we will have to be diligent now to always be checking so we can catch cancer spots sooner and just freeze them off in the future.