Snocat's Story

In the early part of 2009 Snocat began losing weight and not acting quite like herself. Dr. Gail Vial of Kensington Veterinary Hospital diagnosed Snocat with hyperthyroidism and began medical treatment using Tapazole. Although Snocat' thyroid hormone level came down, she was still not quite herself.

In August 2009, she began to vocalize, stand in corners vocalize and act less sociable. Dr. Vial referred Snocat to The Sams Clinic for neurological evaluation. Upon neurological evaluation, Snocat was found to be circling to the right, to be weak in the left front and hind limb, and to have decreased vision and feeling on the left side of her face. These findings suggested there was a problem on the right side of her brain.

An MRI was performed and revealed a large mass in the olfactory and frontal regions of the brain. The tumor extended, which extended from the right to the left side, was taking up about half the cranial vault, compressing the brain. Below are two of the MRI images.

TI-weighted, post-contrast MRI image in a coronal plane of Snocat's head and brain The tumor (meningioma) is outlined with a broken yellow line and the normal brain size is outlined in blue. The normal tissue of the cerebrum is severely compressed by the tumor (green arrow). Coronal plane images were are from the top to bottom.

TI-weighted, postcontrast MRI image in a saggital plane of Snocat's head and brain The tumor (meningioma), outlined in broken yellow line, takes up about half of Snocat's cranial vault. The normal tissue of the cerebral cortex is severely compressed by the tumor, (shown with he red arrow). Saggital plane images are taken from side to side.

Meningiomas in cats are amenable to surgical removal as they are often benign and removed relatively easily. Long-tem outcomes are typically measured in years. Snocat had surgery the following day to remove the large meningioma. Because of the extent of the tumor we used an endoscope to help guide the removal of the tumor and ensure that it was removed as completely as possible.

Snocat gradually recovered to be the cat that her family knew. She has gained weight and is now playing and doing the things that Snocat used to do.