huge lump in shoulder, at the end of my rope

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Elena

Elena

Member Since 2015
Hi everyone, as usual I'm not having a good night. None of us are doing good. For the past month or so Perkins has been having good and bad days. His legs are still weak but there are days he gets around and days he stays in one room and won't move. Today in the morning he didn't want to move or eat. I thought maybe I was giving him too much insulin but I weighted him and he is 18 and a half pounds. I have been giving him a little over two units of levemir because there is always a bubble in the needle I can't get out. Anyways tonight I was petting him and found a huge lump on his shoulder, it's about the size of a half of baseball. It's where I give him his shots sometimes. I don't alcohol his fur before the shot, I am so worried this could be a infection. Since Perkins didn't eat I didn't give him his shot this morning , now he is acting ok and eating, I can't help but wonder if it the insulin or maybe I'm giving him to much or who knows maybe a infection. If perkins diabetes was the only problem I wouldn't be so down, but my mom is in pain with RA and needs massive dental work, or roofs turbine is make a huge amount of noise and our house is falling apart so our neighbors don't talk to us and I'm sure they are laughing about our noisy turbine or at least gossiping, so like many people I'm at the end of my rope. Going to a vet is out of the question until Monday when my mom gets her SS check, we only have 25 dollars and a vet would spit at us for 25 dollars. Has anyone here had this problem with a lump in the shoulder.
 
Hi Elena, sorry you're going through all that. Does the lump feel warm or does it seem painful to the touch? Definitely shoot in a different place next time and rotate your shot areas around. As far as if you're giving too much insulin or not enough, the only way to tell would be to test his BG and get the numbers in the spreadsheet.
 
Sharon14 said:
Hi Elena, sorry you're going through all that. Does the lump feel warm or does it seem painful to the touch? Definitely shoot in a different place next time and rotate your shot areas around. As far as if you're giving too much insulin or not enough, the only way to tell would be to test his BG and get the numbers in the spreadsheet.
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Thanks for the reply, It doesn't feel warm and when I touch it Perkins doesn't seem to care. We did get the new meter, the relion micro but I haven't used it yet. Unless perkins is eating a food he really likes he just won't tolerate me sticking his ears and even then he is had to get blood from so it's very hard to check his sugar but I will try.
 
Pick a spot to be your testing spot. Go there multiple times a day and just hold him, love him, rub his ears, give a treat and let him go. After you're both relaxed with that then try a poke with the lancet. Be sure his ear is warm and that you are calm. He can sense your nerves. Give it a try and if you have problems, post and maybe we can help you figure something out.
If the lump isn't warm or tender to the touch it's probably fine. Keep an eye on it and be sure to change your shot locations around.
 
Callie had a lump and it turned out to be a cyst. It was painless and not hot to the touch. It took the vet less then 1-2 minutes to drain it. She didn't need any anesthesia. Just a poke and the cyst emptied out. I hope that's all your Perkins has.
 
For what it's worth, I have given diabetic cats shots over a total of 6 years, and I have never used an alcohol pad on the skin/fur -- so I wouldn't worry about that part.

Are you using syringes only once?

Any idea how long it has been there or how fast it might have grown?

My Sara has a cyst at the base of the outside of her ear (kind of on her neck). The vet has extracted cells from it and looked at it under a microscope and said it was nothing to worry about. Hope that's all it is for Perkins too. When you can afford it, it would still be quite good for the vet to look at it because that sounds pretty large.

Best wishes to you and to your Mom, and I am sorry that you all have hit a rough patch with everything all at the same time :-(

I know it can feel overwhelming at times, but we are here to listen and help if we can. Hang in there.
Sandi.
 
One of my civvies has a lump on her shoulder too.....it worried me like crazy but it ended up being a cyst. Once the vet drained it (and looked at the fluid under a microscope) it was gone for awhile...it's refilled now but knowing it's nothing dangerous, I'm not worried like I was.

Hers isn't hot or painful either and when I try to feel it, I can feel all the way around it....it feels like a large marble under her skin that's not attached to anything
 
donnalea said:
Have you tried getting blood from a paw pad? Usually the back paws work best. We have a couple people who use a paw because the cat doesn't want there ears touched.
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I never heard of that, I will have to give that a try if the ears don't work. Thanks, God bless
 
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Sharon14 said:
Pick a spot to be your testing spot. Go there multiple times a day and just hold him, love him, rub his ears, give a treat and let him go. After you're both relaxed with that then try a poke with the lancet. Be sure his ear is warm and that you are calm. He can sense your nerves. Give it a try and if you have problems, post and maybe we can help you figure something out.
If the lump isn't warm or tender to the touch it's probably fine. Keep an eye on it and be sure to change your shot locations around.
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Thanks, I give it a try. God bless
 
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donnalea said:
Callie had a lump and it turned out to be a cyst. It was painless and not hot to the touch. It took the vet less then 1-2 minutes to drain it. She didn't need any anesthesia. Just a poke and the cyst emptied out. I hope that's all your Perkins has.
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Thanks, I hope that is all it is. God bless
 
Sandi & Whisper said:
For what it's worth, I have given diabetic cats shots over a total of 6 years, and I have never used an alcohol pad on the skin/fur -- so I wouldn't worry about that part.

Are you using syringes only once?

Any idea how long it has been there or how fast it might have grown?

My Sara has a cyst at the base of the outside of her ear (kind of on her neck). The vet has extracted cells from it and looked at it under a microscope and said it was nothing to worry about. Hope that's all it is for Perkins too. When you can afford it, it would still be quite good for the vet to look at it because that sounds pretty large.

Best wishes to you and to your Mom, and I am sorry that you all have hit a rough patch with everything all at the same time :-(

I know it can feel overwhelming at times, but we are here to listen and help if we can. Hang in there.
Sandi.
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Thank you for the kind words, I just noticed the lump so I'm not sure how long it's been there can't be too long because I give him a shot there every other day, I hope it will go down soon. Thanks for letting me know about the alcohol, I thought I was doing something wrong not using it. God bless.
 
Chris & China said:
One of my civvies has a lump on her shoulder too.....it worried me like crazy but it ended up being a cyst. Once the vet drained it (and looked at the fluid under a microscope) it was gone for awhile...it's refilled now but knowing it's nothing dangerous, I'm not worried like I was.

Hers isn't hot or painful either and when I try to feel it, I can feel all the way around it....it feels like a large marble under her skin that's not attached to anything
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Thanks for letting me know, I don't think Perkins feels attached either, it just feels soft like a water balloon. I'll keep a eye on it. God bless.
 
Elena said:
Thanks for letting me know, I don't think Perkins feels attached either, it just feels soft like a water balloon. I'll keep a eye on it. God bless.
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Chances are very good it's a cyst. That should be simple for the vet to aspirate.
 
Hi everyone, just wanted to give a update on Perkins, the lump has come down and pretty much flatten out. I can't help but wonder if the lump was my fault by the way I pick him up. Perkins used to be 23 pounds, after getting diabetes he went down to 15 now he is at 18. He has some extra skin and I pick him up under his underarms and sometimes I grab some skin when picking him up, maybe I pinched it to hard, but Perkins doesn't like being picked up around the stomach. Anyway I'm just glad it going away. I want to thank everyone for their help. I wish I could contribute to this forum but I'm pretty new to diabetes so I can't answer questions or help yet but someday I hope I can.
 
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