Livestock competition

Typically Hampton is the one who drains my bank account. And for the past few months he hasn't let me down. Between chiros, acupuncture, lessons, vet visits, farrier visits, tranquilizer for said farrier visits and dental work, he has really outdone himself.

But in addition to the horse, I also have a cat. He is a cranky old bastard, and I don't normally talk about him much here because ... well this is a horse blog and he is a feline. But he is going to get some press now because he is now officially the most expensive animal this year. Ladies and gents, the CAT has outdone the horse.

I AM GROVER. OVERLORD OF THE UNIVERSE.

Impressive.

The whole fiasco really started late last year. Grover - the offending feline - started having these gross snotty noses almost constantly. I ran him through 3 different rounds of antibiotics. He has always had constant ear infections as well, so I was treating him for those, too. He ate only the best grain-free food there was.

Eventually he developed a pretty nasty mass/cyst/polyp right outside his ear canal. It grew huge, and started to hemorrhage daily. My pillows, sheets, and a couple of shirts were ruined because he would rest his head on them and leave blood spots. Gross, but it happened. It was so bad that I would wake up in the morning with cat blood smears all over my shoulder and face because Grover likes to head-butt me in the middle of the night. It was awesome, I am telling you.

Off to the vet he went for surgery. Before surgery I found out he has FIV. This explains his chronic infections. I am sure he already had it when I adopted him in 2008 from the shelter. They never tested him, and I never thought to either. He had always lived a normal, healthy, lazy life with me.

So anyway, $1000 later Grover comes home with 5 less teeth and one less ear mass. Pulling his nasty teeth instantly cleared up the snotty nose. Horah! And the bleeding tumor was gone.

All was well for about 3 months.

Now the damn mass is back. It literally grew back in about a week. It's already hemorraging some. Grover doesn't like me to touch it, but otherwise he doesn't seem in pain. He is still eating and drinking and pooping.

The problem is that I cannot afford another surgery for him. His vet said they would most likely have to remove his entire ear to fix this problem. I don't think that's fair to him at all. He has had a very tough life before me. He suffered major trauma in his younger years that left him with a broken and dislocated hip that he functions well on, but still. He also has arthritis in his back (likely a result of the same trauma), plus the FIV, plus asthma/COPD .. and he's 12 .. ... I just don't think it's fair to continue to put him through surgeries. He had a bad reaction to the antibiotics from his first surgery that caused a 3-day asthma attack. I wasn't sure he would pull through but he did.

Because he is a tough old bastard.

He likes to nap on brand new Mattes pads.

But I don't want this thing bleeding all over my house.

Does anyone have any experience with these? I believe it is called ceruminous adenoma?

Is there a way to treat these things at home? Is it safe to drain them?

I know I am better off asking a vet, and I will. But I'm just seeing if anyone has any home remedies or other experiences.

I wish my animals would just knock this shit off already.