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.