In Monday’s post I shared about my cautious approach to vaccinating my dogs. One of the big reasons I’m super careful is I’ve heard stories of dogs having lumps at their vaccine sites and eventually those lumps becoming cancerous.
Do I have documentation? NO. No I do not, but I prefer to air on the side of caution. One of Sampson’s first set of vaccines left a lump just below the base of his tail.
For years.
It really freaked me out.
Which is why whenever I find a lump on my dog, I have it aspirated. It’s a simple procedure that requires inserting a needle into the lump, removing some cells and looking at them under the microscope. The vet does this procedure right in the office with little to no discomfort to your dog.
You on the other hand, if you are anything at all like me, will be squirming like a worm on the end of a hook.
Thankfully, the vets can tell immediately whether the lump is simply a fatty tumor or something more sinister.
Sampson currently has two fatty tumors. One on his side and one just to the left of his right paw pit. (Pawpit. It sounds like something a preaching dog would use. **giggles**)
The one on his side is innocuous and we will probably never have anything done with that, but the one near his paw pit needs to be removed. And the reason for that, is if you’ve ever seen a lumpy lab, you know that some of these fatty tumors can be quite large. Our vet is concerned if the tumor begins to grow, it will impeded his mobility.
And that would not be a good thing.
Sadly so many of the dogs I hear about today are dealing with far more than fatty tumors. In fact, Blogville has lost some of our own to the dreaded “C” word.
Cancer.
So today we’re joining Jackie from Pooch Smooches and Peggy from Peggy’s Pet Place in a blog hop that we hope will spread awareness, support and hope for all those whose lives are or have been affected by cancer.
It’s not a TOOMAH!
Well actually Sampson, it is a tumor, but thankfully it’s a fatty tumor.
That’s the only time that “fatty” is a good word.
Lol to the toomah clip.
It’s great that you are so vigilant about checking the lumps. We had a yellow lab with a fatty tumor, you’re right it grew really huge! Today I am more observant about lumps, especially in our goldens who are even more prone to cancer.
Thank you for joining the hop today.
LOL at the clip. Hysterical.
Thank you for joining our hop! We agree – it’s so important to get those lumps and bumps checked out! Our vet did many a FNA (fine needle aspirate) on our beagle, who was a lumpy girl. She had a couple of bumps that turned out to be toomahs – mast cell, but they got it all. And she had many others that were not. One “bad” sign the vet shared with us is if the bump on your dog changes size suddenly. Bailey’s cancerous lumps would sometimes be small one day, and then big the next. Then they’d go back to being small again. If you’ve got something like that on your dog, get it checked right away! It could be nuthin, but it could be a toomah.
Nice post Jodi, I agree we should err on the side of caution when it comes to our fur babies.
Great video clip – my hubby and I used that line quite often with Cali, but she did have plenty of fatty tumors. I’d really like to know what causes them. She had one just in front of her left arm pit that got as big as a softball over the years – it never seemed to really bother her, but it was under the muscle, and we didn’t want to mess with it. We always had all of her lumpy bumps aspirated. Cancer sucks. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
We agree the only time being called fatty is good. We have recently lost too many friends to the evil C.
Have a wonderful Wednesday.
Best wishes Molly
Super news that it’s just a fatty lump. It is always important to check.
Great post, Jodi, and love that clip. You’re so right, lumps and bumps have to be taken seriously! So glad Sampson’s is just a fatty tumor!
I get little ones, but they come and go. We’ve had the tested and they are nothing. Katie has one about the size of an egg, but it is also just a fatty one. Hopefully we will never find a bad one.
“Fatty” and “benign” are two words that we are always glad to hear.
Pawpit… lol. Nice!
Glad the tumors are fatty, and a good reminder to regularly examine your dog and get anomalies checked out ASAP.
Ernie had a BUMP that had to be removed… when his Boy Baubbles were.. The bump was caused by is INFANT shots… That is ANOTHER reason that OUR mom won’t let us have Multiple Shots in a day.
Thank goodness! Emmett has two of those… but several years ago, he did have cancer. It presented just like those fatty lumps. I always say err on the side of caution and get any new lumps aspirated! I don’t know how I missed this blog hop this time around, but I’m definitely going to participate next year!
Mom does the titer thing with me
Lily
I believe that vaccines contributed to my golden’s death from cancer….I do not think they caused it but I suspect they accelerated it. That’s a story for a blog post that I am just not up to writing yet. That’s another reason we are cautious like you are.
Oh my, the lumps and bumps on our 13 year old beagle…he’s had some removed which thankfully were not cancerous. he also has some of those fatty tumors, but his are not that large. I am constantly checking all of them for any kind of changes.
Thank Goodness – and what a good idea!
Kristin
Cancer isn’t funny, but you crack me up! Glad to hear your dog is fatty. 😉
Toby’s got Sampson beat in the fat department. Oh, and in the lipoma department too. LOL! 🙂
I am glad Sampson’s lumps turned out to be nothing. 🙂 The clip is funny.
Tubby had a cancerous mast cell Tumor removed 3 yea ago knock on wood he has only had the 1 and it was a low grade it did appear 2 weeks after his rabies vaccine which has alwAys made me wonder
Urban hounds
Labs notoriously have a lot of fatty lumps. Sally had so many that I had to draw a little outline of her body and mark where the were so we could keep track. I checked her all the time. She had a mast cell tumor removed at about age 8 so I was very conscientious.
Glad it’s just fat.
And you are to be extra careful, better safe than sorry, you avoid headaches, heartaches and vetbills.
My cairn, who is 13 today (sorry had to share that!) is constantly growing fatty lumps now that he is getting older – we say he is almost more fatty lumps than dog, bless him!
However my favourite of all his fatty lumps are the first two he grew… you see he had the op as a young pup however it would seem that now he is a man of senior years he has decided he would quite like them back and so has grown his own pair. Yep his two first (and biggest) fatty lumps are between his back legs!!
Please no I am only joking about this because we have had them all examined and are under carefully watch to see they don’t develop into something else!!
Can’t imagine how horrid it would be to have to face something like your dog having cancer!
Not only would I be like you insofar as being a squiggly-wiggly worm, I have been many times in the past 9 years between Callie and Shadow. I’ve pretty much learned to stay calm on the outside while the vet does each “FNA” but my insides go ballistic while I wait for the verdict. Glad Sampson’s “toomah” is the fatty kind! Callie has one on her side that feels like a lump of mashed potatoes…I check it at least once a day to make sure it hasn’t changed at all, along with the other 3 little ones she has. Love the clip — thanks for sharing it!
I still have to write/publish my own post. The hop is open until tomorrow, I believe.
The aspiration to test for a tumor is very easy for a vet to do. When I took Sephi in to the vet to have a lump tested, it took the vet less than 10 seconds to aspirate and less than five minutes to examine the results. I was quite surprised to find my bill was over $50, though! Office visit. Even though that particular lump was not cancerous, it is likely that Sephi passed on because of undetected cancer. :'(
What a way to make people smile at the end of your post with that video. That was a famous saying! Very serious stuff with cancer and it’s unfortunate that we and our poor pets have to go through it. Glad Sampson’s tail base lump was just a vaccine reaction and that his other lumps are just fatty. Can live with fatty. Keep eye out or other lumps and bumps and get them checked asap.
Pawpit. LOL.
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