A little worried about my doggie...(Happy update!)

[JerseyJanice]

Max will be 8 years old next November. From puppyhood, he has been a very healthy dog. Mutts are like that.

This morning, DS noticed a lump on the back of his leg and showed it to me. It's pretty big, maybe the size of a large gumball, and in the crease of his leg, kind of like on the back of his knee. It must be tender because it's red, and he won't let me touch it. I don't know how it grew so large without us even seeing it till now.

There is no way I can handle taking him to the vet without DH, who is working a double shift today, so I made an appointment to have him seen tomorrow morning. I just walked him and looked at the lump as much as I could. It jiggles when he moves, so I guess it could be a fatty tumor. He's never had one before, but I think he's at an age now when he could start getting them.

Poor doggie! He hates the vet with a passion. He won't even stand on the scale there without totally freaking out.

 

[SundaeAfternoon]

Sorry to hear that. I am taking my dog to the vet tomorrow morning for a lump as well. Praying for us both that they are only fatty lumps.

 

[Christine]

Most likely, it is a fatty tumor that is possibly irritated. Your dog is at the perfect age for developing them. My dog has grown so many in the last two years (she almost 10). Hers feel different from other lipomas that I have had on other dogs. Hers are very hard and not moveable so they kind of freak me out but the doctor says that are fatty tumors.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

This morning, DS noticed a lump on the back of his leg and showed it to me. It's pretty big, maybe the size of a large gumball, and in the crease of his leg, kind of like on the back of his knee. It must be tender because it's red and he won't let me touch it. I don't know how it grew so large without us even seeing it till now.

Oh boy.

One of my dogs had something similar. It seemingly turned up overnight in the same location. I had it looked at but the vet thought it was a cyst (he'd done an aspiration of cells and nothing unusual showed up).

Later that week we were watching TV when I heard my DD screaming. The "cyst" had popped and arterial blood was squirting all over the kitchen. She would have bled to death if we didn't stop the bleeding. I held pressure on it all the way to the emergency vet's.

Turned out it was a hemangiopericytoma, confirmed by biopsy. These are malignant tumors that are fed with a large blood supply (hence the red). We removed it, and several others that popped up elsewhere on her body in the coming months, and then they just stopped. Shortly after that she started showing signs of a brain tumor, which we subsequently lost her to. It broke my heart, I loved her so much.

I'm glad you're having her seen tomorrow. Keep an eye on her today and tonight to make sure it doesn't pop open and bleed. If it's anything like this type of tumor, it can grow huge literally overnight. They'll probably recommend removal and biopsy, which is a surgical procedure. They should try to get margins as wide as possible. Radiation is offered today and may help the spread, too (I would do it today if given the option; we weren't).

I'm sorry if this sounds scary. I hope I'm wrong and that maybe it's something else. Let us know.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Oh, no, Pea & Me, I hope it's not what your dog had.

He has an appointment tomorrow for noon at the vet who's seen him since puppyhood. I hate going to this vet because he's such a rip-off, but he knows Max and the office is very close to our house.

Max does not take going to the vet well. I'm worried about how he'll get through the exam. You should have seen him this summer when we took him to get his shots for the kennel. It took four men just to get him onto the scale. Max is 120 pounds of stubbornness.

I'll update you guys after he's seen.

 

[acejka]

Our jack russell had something like that. In Sept. 2008 we were supposed to leave for disney the next morning at 4:30, and we slept through all of our alarms. When we woke up it was noticably bothering her so we decided it was a blessing in disguise that we overslept by 3.5 hours, so we ran by the vet and made an appointment to have my mom take her asap (we took her with us since they were just opening and we thought they might be able to take a quick look) They took a look and said not to worry. We got back from wdw, and she'd chewed the darn thing off and has had no problems ever since.

I hope yours turns out to be nothing too!

 

[JerseyJanice]

Forgot to say, best of luck to your doggie, too, Sundae Afternoon. Hoping and praying both pups don't have anything serious.

 

[DawnCt1]

Oh boy.

One of my dogs had something similar. It seemingly turned up overnight in the same location. I had it looked at but the vet thought it was a cyst (he'd done an aspiration of cells and nothing unusual showed up).

Later that week we were watching TV when I heard my DD screaming. The "cyst" had popped and arterial blood was squirting all over the kitchen. She would have bled to death if we didn't stop the bleeding. I held pressure on it all the way to the emergency vet's.

Turned out it was a hemangiopericytoma, confirmed by biopsy. These are malignant tumors that are fed with a large blood supply (hence the red). We removed it, and several others that popped up elsewhere on her body in the coming months, and then they just stopped. Shortly after that she started showing signs of a brain tumor, which we subsequently lost her to. It broke my heart, I loved her so much.

I'm glad you're having her seen tomorrow. Keep an eye on her today and tonight to make sure it doesn't pop open and bleed. If it's anything like this type of tumor, it can grow huge literally overnight. They'll probably recommend removal and biopsy, which is a surgical procedure. They should try to get margins as wide as possible. Radiation is offered today and may help the spread, too (I would do it today if given the option; we weren't).

I'm sorry if this sounds scary. I hope I'm wrong and that maybe it's something else. Let us know.

How awful. I am so sorry. Is that rare?

 

[walden]

So glad you have a vet appointment. The only way to know is with a biopsy.

There are lumps, and there are lumps. A benign lipoma can grow enormously overnight and can be really scary. But often turns out to be nothing at all serious.

And then -- a teeny tiny lump can turn out to nerve sheath sarcoma and need major surgery.

You should biopsy, Best of luck, and really hoping it is nothing ,much.

 

[LindaG4458]

One of our pups had a lump on the back of her left hind leg. We took her to the vet and he thought it was a fatty tumor until he removed it. He sent it in for a biopsy and it was a mast cell tumor (malignant). She had to have additional surgery and radiation treatments. This all happened when she was 3 1/2. She lived to be 14 with no recurrence. She had to learn how to "throw" the leg because the thigh muscles on the back of the leg had been severed.

Our 13 year old male now has numerous fatty tumors and they don't bother him at all.

 

[wvdisluv2]

Hoping for good news on Max's lump and Sundae's pup too~our almost 12 yr old Daisy is lumpy all over (boxer/lab/mutt) but has only had fatty tumors and one "moley/wart" that is benign *knocks on wood*. Our 9 yr old terrier mix Jake had one fatty tumor that grew at an alarming rate and was subsequently removed~no further issues(more knocking). They are SO much a part of our families

 

[AKL_Megs]

Our old mutt had something like this, in the same spot!

The dog, he didn't want us to touch it, but my DH had me hold him down and he looked at it. It was red, it was like a gumball, it made the dog cry and wince when he touched it... it ended up being... a ZIT!

Or a cyst. Either way, DH squeezed it, it popped like those videos you see on YouTube. Dog hated every second of it, but was back to his old self the next AM.

Hopefully your dog has the same thing!

 

[Disneycrazy!!]

My boxer who is 8 yrs old has had 3 surgeries to remove a fatty tumor that keeps growing back in the same exact spot. It starts out looking like a wart in between his toes on front paw. Within a week it grows to the size of a golfball and gets painful for him to walk. This last time it grew back within 6 months of the last surgery. So far its been 5 months since that last surgery so I have been watching it everyday. I really hope both of ya'lls dogs do well at the vet tomorrow!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Is that rare?

Not exactly. There are several subtypes that fall under the broader category of spindle cell tumors, which arise from connecting tissue. Hemantiopericytomas arise from pericytes, ie blood vessel cells. They occur in people and livestock as well as dogs. There seems to be a lot more information available today than when my dog was ill.

http://www.fetchdog.com/learn-conne...Dogs/D/300600/P/1:5:55:601:6106/I/AR000010574

 

[Pea-n-Me]

How is Max doing tonight, Janice?

Good luck to you and your dog too tomorrow SundaeAfternoon.

 

[amg35]

I hope your little buddy will be fine!

I did just go and check my dog for any lumps. He looked at me like I was insane and slowly backed away from me.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Thanks for asking about him, Pea. Max was just out in the yard barking for no apparent reason. (I'm laughing because I just saw a thread title about people letting their dogs bark outside. I'm one of those people. Max does it to blow off steam.) I brought him back inside with one of the sugar cookies I baked yesterday. I've been spoiling him since yesterday because I'm worried about him. There are few things that Max enjoys more than homemade cookies.

He let DH examine his lump. I can't exactly post what DH said it feels like, but he said it's like a part of every male's anatomy. So we're taking him to the vet today. It's causing him to limp, so it must be uncomfortable. I hope the vet takes the whole thing off because it's ugly too.

Max is almost all black except for a white squiggle on his chest, a white spot on his chin that's been growing bigger lately, and two white toes on one foot. The leg with the two white toes is the one with the lump. Don't laugh at me for saying this, but it's his pretty leg so we have to get this ugly looking thing off of him.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

We won't laugh about his toes, but this is pretty funny...

it's like a part of every male's anatomy

Glad he got some cookies. Good luck today.

 

[JerseyJanice]

We're back from a stressful vet's office visit. I tried to muzzle Max so they could examine the lump. I got it unto him, but he yanked it off in seconds. We were able to weigh him though. He's 117 so he's down 3 pounds from last summer.

He's going in on Monday morning for surgery. They gave us tranquilizers to feed him an hour or so before we bring him there. They will do an EKG on him before they knock him out, then will remove the entire tumor and biopsy it. The vet said without the biopsy, it's impossible to tell whether it's a fatty tumor or a cancerous lesion.

IMO, it needs to be removed no matter what it is. It's in his joint, it's bothering him, and it's ugly. This vet isn't cheap, but what can we do? I'm not bringing him somewhere new. And besides, he hasn't cost us much in the way of vet care in almost eight years.

 

[TheBigBadWolf]

Sending prayers and good thoughts Max's way for a speedy recovery after his surgery, and for a benign tumor.