Lumpy Bumpy

My dog has a lump... Is it something to worry about? What can I do?

Pets often get lumps appearing, and we just simply can’t tell what they are unless we take a sample.

I took some lumps off a dog today, and I've sent them off to the laboratory to find out exactly what they are.

Lumps can be anything from an infection or inflammation, to a tumour, and tumours can either be benign (unlikely to spread), or malignant (likely to spread, and sometimes very quickly).

However, just because you've found a lump, please don't panic, the only way to know what it is, is to speak to your vet, who will advise you about how best to investigate.

In the first instance, we often take what’s called a fine needle aspirate (FNA), where we use a needle, just like having a vaccination, to take tiny samples of the lump. We put the tiny samples onto slides to examine under the microscope.

Once the pathologist at the laboratory has looked at the slides, we get a report back, which means we can decide if the lump is something that we don't need to worry about, or if it's problematic, then we can plan a procedure to remove it.

The next stage is either a biopsy, where we take a larger sample of tissue for further analysis; or if we are confident to plan based on the results from the FNA, then we can go ahead with full surgery.

If a lump is a type of tumour, we also need to check lymph nodes, and also do an X-ray of the chest (lungs) and liver to check for spread.

In any situation involving a lump, it’s best to find out what it is sooner rather than later, that way, if it’s an infection, then we can start treatment, or if it’s something more sinister, then we can investigate and plan what to do.

This is a lump on a dogs abdomen; I marked out the cutting area with a sterile surgical pen, before I performed the lump removal surgery.