Lump on Dog's leg

[Marty11]

Hi members. I have not posted for awhile but I have been following lots of stories. I have a new issue that showed up on my Boston Terrier. I have an attached photo. My vet wants to remove by surgery. I just want an opinion if I should do it ASAP or get another opinion or wait for a bit and see if it shrinks on it's own. I have no issues with paying for it, but she has gone through 5 surgeries being a breeding dog and would like to avoid a 6th one. She is 8 now. What kind of suggestions do you have? Her other surgeries for caesarians hernia and spay.

[Barkingdog]

Can you have a biopsy on the lump to see if it's cancer ?

[Marty11]

She didn't suggest that. She said it was large enough to remove and also it could get bigger and longer surgery will be necessary if I wait. She also said she would of course send it in for testing as part of the fee to check for cancer.

[Lynne&Co.]

Why does your vet want to remove it? If it's not causing a problem for your pup I would be inclined to leave it alone.

Did your vet offer to perform a fine needle aspiration? A quick look under the microscope of the aspirated cells and your vet can determine whether the cells are innocent or something serious.

[hazelrunpack]

Any idea why the hair is gone? Has she been licking it? Has it been rubbed off? It looks gnarly enough that, if it were us, we'd have it taken off before it gets bigger. I agree with your vet: right now it looks like it would be fairly easy to remove but if it got much bigger.... Limbs don't typically have a lot of muscle and supportive tissue to spare, so you want to take off the lump while it's still small and the surgeon won't have to take as much healthy tissue to get a clean margin.

An aspiration might tell you something, but unless it comes back as a benign lipoma (which don't usually cause hair loss), the results are likely to be inconclusive or misleading. At least, that's been our experience with aspiration biopsies... Still, a biopsy would give you more to go on and typically, results only take a week or so.

[Marty11]

Hazelrunpack that is exactly what she said. Small ones are easier to re attach the tissue especially where it is located. No idea why there is no hair there. I have seen her touch it once, clever girl put her foot on a ledge so she could reach it. It doesn't hurt to touch and she doesn't limp and it's fairly hard. I am leaning towards removing it. Said it was a 10 min procedure.