2nd opinion re cat jawbone operation, please

[SAHGB]

One of our kitties has about half her lower jaw bone that has died.  Our vet gave us a CD copy of her film (not sure if x-rays or another type of scan) and part of the lower jaw bone is just 'gone' and one largish piece has broken away and moved towards the middle of her mouth.  This area of bone death has increased noticeably per our vet since we took her to him a couple of months back because we'd noticed her drooling (he pulled another tooth at that time and we've been giving her prescribed liquid meds since).  We were waiting to see if what we thought was a gum and just bone underneath a bad tooth problem was healed by pulling that tooth and the meds, but noticed the drooling had started again so took her back this week. Our vet thinks probably cancer but can't tell of course without operating.

Moxie will be 11 in April.  The vet pulled several of her teeth a number of years ago because they were starting to move out of the sockets and diseased (found because we'd noticed she developed bad breath), so possible the problem was already affecting her jaw bone then though if our vet made film of her jaw bone he didn't mention any problem with it back then.  She has not seemed to be in pain, though of course hard to tell with some animals.  

We have a surgery date of next Tuesday for her to have the bad half of her lower jaw bone removed.  My questions are:

Are there other diseases than cancer that could cause this jaw bone breaking or dissolving problem and if so, what?

How much pain will we be causing her (during the operation and after) and will the surgery allow her to live a halfway decent life afterwards as far as eating, lack of pain, (assuming if cancer all of it is removed).  

What could we expect for Moxie's length of quality life time-wise at almost 11 (our kitties normally live to 15-16 with a few having lived to 20+)?

If cancer, does this type of cancer recur often and spread, i.e., like to her brain, or her whole mouth where she'd be unable to eat?

We love her dearly, but I don't want to put her through lots of pain and a lingering or painful death if the surgery isn't likely to really help her - we'll do what's necessary as long as she has quality of life, though.  Our vet has apparently done the surgery on several dogs and said they recovered well and could eat normally (don't know their quality of life in other ways or length of life afterwards).  He has 'not' mentioned having done the surgery on other cats.

Any help most appreciated.

[opus88]

hi and welcome to our forum, SAHGB isn't a regular member of our site and hasn't posted again since the original in Jan 2012. I will give you a link to send her a personal message that should go directly to her email and hopefully that way she will see you are trying to contact her give you a reply..
just click on the highlighted area below..

http://www.medhelp.org/private_messages/new?personal_page_id=2494197&recipient_id=1969304

I wish I could be of more help to you and your dear kitty, this is such a troubling decision to make.....we wish kitty all the best in whatever choice you follow♥

[Labolli]

What happened with your kitty? I just found out my cat (around 8 or 9 yrs old) has this exact same ccondition. Did you go through with the surgery? How was her recovery and quality of life after?