Mass near my cats eye

Hello vets, I would be so grateful for some advice. My boy has a mass behind his eye, it was found when he was having tooth extractions on Wednesday. The only symptom is a weepy eye and a barely noticeable swelling under his eye. He's 10 years old, no history of ill health, up to date on vaccines, flea treatment and wormer. He's on a 10 day course of strong antibiotics and eye drops, as the vet said there is a small chance that it could be an infection. I should have asked the vet more questions, but I got a shock when I seen the x-ray and my mind went blank.

I'm not surprised that your mind went blank..... and neither should your vet be.  They will usually be very happy to repeat themselves, understanding that the unexpected is always big news.  By now, they have probably examined this lump.  They will hopefully have seen it from more than one angle on the x-ray plate and ideally have managed to biopsy or culture it if there turns out to be an obvious soft tissue mass (even if its an infection, antibiotics work best if you can identify a specific bug that you're trying to kill).  So they may by now know better than me what you're dealing with.  Infections and cancer, benign cancer and polyps, as well as some cases of dense overlap of normal features, can all look rather similar on an x-ray.  However, your vet has something that I don't have; context.  They have seen the lesion on the patient, seen the patient up close and theirs will be the best assessment as to what this might be and what options exist to deal with it.  Biopsy may turn out to be indicated and in some cases, specialist dental x-ray may be reccommended.  Sometimes, radical steps may be required - as a vet, I find lab pathogists very helpful in advising on such lesions (because most people who remove or sample a lesion, send it to them).   Your vet will no doubt have consulted their own informatory sources and be putting together a plan going forwards.  Please will you let us know how they get on?

A word about skull radiogtaphs; normal skulls are are easy to get off-centre and so for me, your  vets' context is vital before any judgements can be made in this case.

Thank you so much for your reply. I am a bit torn on what to do because the vet has referred him to an eye specialist. I would rather him have an x-ray when he finishes the antibiotics to see if the mass has gotten any smaller. If it's not gone, I would rather an FNA be done. I'm concerned that if it isn't an infection, then it is most likely a tumor.

I do not have enough context for this, but most eye problems are in fact emergencies.  Before you make a decision to wait, it is therefore important to understand from your vet - who has this context - what will happen if this mass increases in size?  What are the implications of the mass being where it is and therefore, How important is it that this referral takes place immediately?  Im afraid that this is not something that I can safely assess from here but I suspect that you are paying your vet to make this judgement on your behalf - and while I can't guarentee that they will make the perfect call, the most important thing is that the call that they make is a safe one - or that at least, you fully understand any risks they might be concerned about.   Eyes are delicate when it comes to things like withstanding changes in pressure, or pain.