I guess in my heart, I've known ever since I noticed the lump and started to look around on the internet :/ The fact that it's not really a uniform shape (you can tell in my one photo pretty well...it is shaped more like a kidney bean and the part closest to his ear is the largest - it's all one piece but very oddly shaped!) and that it's not attached to the skin in any way, along with the vet saying she couldn't see any issues with his mouth (ie, no infection drainage, at least at the time, no wedged, rotting food that got infected, etc etc), speaks volumes. We can in no way afford that kind of surgery right now and from what I've read, along with his age, it looks like there's really no point anyhow? It basically sounds like it's a death sentence. Hell, I'm freaking out right now because he REFUSES to eat and he is STUBBORN. The vet even commented, in a shocked tone lol, how strong he was and she would be correct! It took two techs plus her to hold him still in order to check in his mouth. He might be thin from his weight loss (he's lost over 20% of his body weight from last Sunday to this Sunday) but he's strong as heck. So, trying to force him to eat via a syringe is next to impossible and stresses him out to a scary level...his heartbeat is already so heavy, it gets intense. I did manage to get some in his mouth (Ensure mixed with baby food) when he was willingly eating it for me earlier but I'm only talking a few small bites. I ended up basically forcing him to eat/swallow about 2mL's but that's about it. When I tried more, he refused to swallow and shook his head, getting it all over me! Little bugger, lol! I don't know what to do!