Should I get another opinion? Don't know what to do for my 15 year old baby boy
My 14 (maybe 15? don't know his real age) year old kitty got a probable diagnosis of OSCC from a general vet. He was drooling, had stinky breath, losing a lot of weight, not eating well etc. So I took him to his regular Banfield preventative care vet inside the Petco where I've always taken him for his general healthcare maintenance. Figured he just had some bad teeth or gum issues. During the dental cleaning and xray, they saw resorptive lesions on all his teeth and recommended a more comprehensive clinic workup, so I took him to VCA to look at his xrays and make a treatment recommendation. They agreed there were resorptive lesions and recommended a dental consult which they said would most likely result in him needing a 6k full mouth extraction. That's a pretty steep price for me since I'm a single working professional in a high cost of living area and I work in the education field, so my budget doesn't have a lot of wiggle room aside from borrowing or cashing out my 401k which I would gladly do for my baby, but if it can be avoided I'd rather avoid it. So I went to a local neighborhood pet clinic for a second opinion, or to see if anyone there could do a full mouth extraction for a more affordable price. The vet took one look at his radiographs and noted a lot of bone destruction that he didn't think was explained by resorption. After reviewing my baby's symptoms (drooling, lethargy, palpable hard swelling on his jaw line, pawing at his face after eating) and taking a closer look at the x-rays, said that the most probable diagnosis was an oral tumor, most likely OSCC. Gave me steroids, more pain meds, and told me to come back when we were ready for euthanasia. The complete 180 has me in shock, and while I appreciated this vet being straightforward, part of me doesn't want to believe it's cancer because how did two previous vets miss it? I'm debating going to the dental consult appointment back with VCA to get yet another opinion, but I have a gut feeling it's time to let my baby go since he's so uncomfortable. But if there's a chance that it's just extremely severe dental disease, maybe I should pursue that differential diagnosis? I just don't know. Has anyone's cat ever been falsely diagnosed with cancer? It's really hard to know what's right.