Can a cat live without a tongue?

Re: Can a cat live without a tongue?

Tim Charlesworth — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 19:07:08 GMT

Both cats and dogs can tolerate losing a lot (sorry to be vague but depends a little on which bit) of their tongue. Some US surgeons have reported complete glossectomy in dogs and they do cope reasonably well. Cat's don't cope with losing the whole tongue, however, and so it wouldn't be recommended,

Tim

Re: Can a cat live without a tongue?

Andrew Mellor — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 19:00:45 GMT

had a young kitten 14 week if I remember rightly that chewed a electric cable lost front half of tongue, basically all the free tip back to the point where it attaches to the floor of mouth and most of hard palate, did loads of reconstructive surgeries and gained 80% hard palate coverage but couldn't do anything with the tongue but 7 or 8 years on cat still doing fine although she is a complete psycho.

The only difference may be in an older can the ability to adjust would be harder than for a kitten.

Re: Can a cat live without a tongue?

Bibs — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 16:53:41 GMT

I would have thought removal of the whole tongue would cause major issues with swallowing (saliva too, so feeding tube might not make everything ok) and then there is grooming as previously noted.

My ex boss once saw a horrible incident involving a paper shredder and a young lab that ended in the dog coming in seperated from his tongue. Boss got specialist advice about how much of a tongue stump a dog could live with and it wasn't enough, so the dog was PTS. I think you need at least enough to swallow your own secretions with. Doesn't sound too hopeful in this case.

Re: Can a cat live without a tongue?

Kate Richardson — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 12:19:14 GMT

I don't agree with removing the whole tongue, but if the main mass is accessible to excise without compromising function then I wouldn't rule out surgery(and this is coming from a non surgeon). I had one case where the cat was still eating and well, quality of life didn't appear to be compromised and the owners didn't want to euthanase at that point. The SCC was alongside the base of the tongue, so I excised as much as I could. Histopathology confirmed SCC, guarded prognosis given, but put the cat onto meloxicam. Cat took a week or 2 to adjust to I assume strange tongue movement, but once healed, never looked back. The SCC initially looked like it wasn't going to resolve but we continued meloxicam, cat happy and well and over the next few months all visual signs of it completely resolved. After approx. 9 months we started to reduce the meloxicam dose, whilst keeping a close eye on the mouth, and then we started to see ulceration appearing which we suspected was regrowth, so we went back the full dose. The lesion resolved and the cat stayed on meloxicam, and lived for 5 years after initial diagnosis and was euthanased for unrelated illness. I have never seen an SCC respond the same way to meloxicam since then, but in some circumstances surgery may be an acceptable approach. It does require a cat that is well otherwise, a dedicated and understanding owner and a mass in a location that is amenable to surgery, even if you can't be sure of margins, so you do have to pick your cases carefully.

Re: Can a cat live without a tongue?

scatty — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 09:46:25 GMT

I put a cat down on Friday for this reason. We considered surgery (not to remove the whole tongue but to remove the tumour) but the worry is you wouldn't get the margins and you would have put the cat through a lot of surgery that wasn't curative. The owners were worried the cat wouldn't be able to groom properly and would be miserable.

Re: Can a cat live without a tongue?

Hannah Wynne Richards — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 09:17:33 GMT

Absolutely no need to say "I'm afraid"

Wynne

Re: Can a cat live without a tongue?

Charlotte Marshall — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 17:07:00 GMT

I've seen a couple of these recently - at least I assume they were SCC. In both cases there was reduced tongue movement by the time I saw them. I didn't even consider surgery I am afraid. I recommended and performed euthanasia in both cases.

Re: Can a cat live without a tongue?

Niall Taylor — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 12:50:58 GMT

I can't remember the exact reference but cats do far worse without a tongue than dogs.

Radical excision is likely only to be palliative anyway as the SqCC will almost certainly appear elsewhere in the mouth following surgery.

Why not try it on Metacam? On occasions that can have a pretty dramatic effect by shrinking a variety of neoplasias, especially SqCC's.

Radical excision would be a big no-no for me though.

Cheers,

Re: Can a cat live without a tongue?

Hannah Wynne Richards — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 12:49:34 GMT

My golden rule is toask myself "Will I be doingthis for the animal or the owner?"

Wynne

Re: Can a cat live without a tongue?

Joyce Whitehead — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 10:40:34 GMT

I also wouldn't do it. We had a cat with a SCC on the tip of his tongue, and he sloughed quite a large area at the rostral end. The owners were very dedicated, possibly too much so, and syringe fed him liquivite and other liquidized foods. But in our opinion they went on too long before euthanasia. He had lots of problems with dribbling nasty smelly saliva onto his legs, and he couldn't clean himself. They felt his quality of life was ok, but we spent a couple of weeks persuading them to head for put to sleep. It wasn't a pretty sight.

Re: Can a cat live without a tongue?

Sammy82 — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 10:39:44 GMT

I cannot imagine the cat being able to drink without a tongue, they can't even suck water with their lips like we could. I imagine a permanent feeding tube would be nescesary to keep this cat alive. I doubt this would be in the best interest of the cat and would require a lot of commitment by the owner.

Re: Can a cat live without a tongue?

Glenn Hodgson — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 10:33:22 GMT

No experience in this but would not consider in my own pets.