grinder

My 9-1/2 year old Boston has developed a small lump in the left front arm
pit - the size of a small g****. I think it is a fatty deposit because it
moves around a lot when pushed and is not hard. It doesn't seem to bother
him in the slightest either. I am going to watch it closely before going
to the vet because I know they are going to want to operate and I hate to
have him put under again (tooth extraction two months ago) and suffer threw
the post surgery pain if it is not necessary.

Feedback?

montana

The dog won't have to be put under for a fine needle biopsy, which I
would have done. Lumps in arm pits could be fatty tumors, but could also
be lymphoma.

grinder

I will ask about that vs. surgery (I don't know how he will sit still for
it). If it is a fatty tumor or lymphoma no treatment will be needed. The
fatty tumor is no big deal and I would not want him to go through treatment
for lymphoma (something I personally would not do either - sometimes the
treatment is worse than the disease).

montana

Of course, what you choose to do is up to you. We had a dog (nearly 13)
with lung cancer that we chose not to do surgery on, but we needed to
find out what was going on with him and basically set up a hospice
situation for him so he wouldn't suffer. We have another dog (12 at the
time) who had a mast cell sarcoma which we had removed and he has had no
recurrance. I have several friends with dogs who have had cancer who did
go through radiation and or chemo and wasn't as traumatic as people
chemo by a long shot. Had chemo been an option for Spencer's lung
cancer, we would have done that. Chemo was not recommended for Tracy's
mast cell sarcoma. Chemo is very different for dogs than for people.
Again, I'd want to find out what that lump was, for my own peace of
mind, but also so my dog could get help for pain, if needed.

buglady

.......Actually lymphoma is one of the few cancers that do respond to chemo.
Hoping for the best......
buglady
take out the dog before replying

furpaw

I had the same initial attitude when Dylan's squamous cell carcinoma was
discovered - that I didn't want to put her through the misery of chemo.
After a discussion with her veterinary oncologist, we decided to go ahead
with radiation and chemo, still with the proviso that if it looked like it
was making her sick, we'd stop it immediately. He explained that the doses
are much lower (relative to size) than they use for humans, because they
are not trying to keep the cancer at bay for the rest of a human life span,
but for a dog life span. As it turned out, she sailed through the
treatment with what appeared to be minimal discomfort. And she's still
with us, nearly two years later, healthy except for hip dysplasia that
we're currently treating. Was it cured? Probably not; but it appears to
be in remission.

But I'm hoping that your dog only has a fatty tumor!

FurPaw


--
Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever.

To reply, unleash the dog.

montana

Oh yes, our pack & I are hoping for a fatty tumor, too!

sighthounds etc.

I second this. A FNA is not a big deal, but if it's lymphoma, the
sooner you get on it the better. It's treatable, though not curable.
We just lost Jack the Greyhound to lymphoma on 9/11/03; unfortunately,
he didn't get the 16 - 18 months that chemotherapy usually buys for
dogs with lymphoma.

Sally Hennessey

john ferman

Our Bichon, Cosmo, is undergoing chemo for lymphoma - he has had three
doses and 11 to go. The onco vet said 12-16 months is about the most
one should expect, but that there are statistical outliers on either
side of the average. No one seems to know the statistical standard
deviation or varience, so its not possible to estimate percentile
probabilities.

grinder

Update. The Vet took a sample and looked at it under the microscope. It
was a fatty lump. The Vet said to wait until it starts to bother him. This
is more for my knowledge than anything else because I would not have had any
treatment regardless of the finding.