Fatty cysts

[senorita02]

Hey i am so glad to have found this thread Senorita has a few lumps on her too, her breed Presa Canario is prone to them, but i still worry that they are cancer, we had one checked with needle they took out some fluid and she said (vet) that is was consistant with a fatty tumor , but soon after the vet did that it has grown even bigger but now it is shrinking again, we are going to have it removed but the vet said it would cost about $400.00 so i am saving for it.
Is it normal for them to shrink? and enlarge?

[pnance]

senorita02, Bears don't usually shrink, although a couple slowly grow so we have to keep and eye on them. With him, we have each lump vet checked because of his history and just because 1 is a fatty cyst doesn't mean another one is. Our vet usually recommends to just leave them and keep an eye on them, unless they start bothering him, which is what happened with the 2 I already had removed (1 under his armpit and another on his chest).

[senorita02]

Well Senorita has a few of them on her, one is much larger than the others, but the way the vet checked it was by sucking the fluid out with a needle, now is this the same as having it removed and sent in? Is the needle sucking as accurate??

what was bears history with is other lump?

[pnance]

They normally take a needle suck out the fluid and check the cells on a slide under the microscope (called asperating (sp??)). Yes it is accurate, but its not the same thing as a vet suggesting to remove a lump and send it for a biopsy. If the vet is unsure or isn't confident in the slide that the cells are all just fat, they usually recommend a removal and biopsy. See dragondawg post and lizbuds link for more info about lumps.

When we first adopted Bear he had a large lump on his stomach that was diagnosed as a mast cell tumor (basically a cancerous tumor). The vets removed it and he hasn't had a reoccurence in about 3 years, but any lump makes us nervous.

[senorita02]

Aww i am so glad Bear is healthy now.
But i do understand being nervous still.