Found a small lump on my dog’s chest today, right next to his shoulder. He is a 5 year old black lab/border collie mix. Its movable (not attached to the bone) and doesn’t seem to be bothering him at all. From what I’ve been reading online tonight, it sounds like it might be a lipoma. I’ll be calling my vet tomorrow to really find out.
But in the meantime, has anyone had experience with lipomas? Care to share any details?
Sure, but I’ve also had experience with mast cell tumors and sarcomas, both of which felt just like the lipomas.
Only way to tell if it needs to come off or not is a biopsy or an aspirate. If it’s a lipoma, it’s NDB and you leave it there, unless it grows enough to bother the dog (or you.) If it’s something else, it will probably need to come off. Best to get to it while it’s small and easily removed, if that is what’s needed.
My GoldenxLab “Scarecrow” is my “lumpy” dog.
He has lots of lipomas. All have been tested. None were anything serious. But I do agree, allow a vet to determine what the bump is.
It’s funny now, people pet him and say “Oh he has a lump…no he has a bunch of lumps.” And then they look kind of confused. And I explain this is what happens in aging retrievers. And they kind of keep petting him. It’s humorous though.
~Emily
If it is a lipoma, most leave them alone. Unless it bothers you, it bothers the dog, or it starts to get bigger… at that point you should have it removed. If the dogs get groomed a lot some people just opt to have them removed as sometimes it can get nicked with the clippers.
Had 3 dogs with them. None caused problems. One dog lived to be 16 and first got a lipoma around age 8. One lived to be 14, and one 18. Never had them aspirated, vet said that they were lipomas, and as long as they didn’t interfere with movement, to leave them alone.
None of the dogs were breeds where cancer is common.
I have a 15 year old aussie that has some. He used to only have one, but as he has gotten older he has more and some are getting kind of big.
Once when he was out for something else, I had one of them biopsied and it was not malignant, just fatty tissue. I think they probably bother me more than him really, although I think here before too long I will have to make a decision about him 
If it’s not painful or oozing anything,I wouldn’t worry about it.
Lipomas are no big deal, but definitely get into the vet sometime and have it aspirated and examined under the scope to be sure that’s what it is.
I’ve had several dogs with them. I had one dog with lots of lipomas. At first I had them removed, then after a while, just watched them. I did catch one on a doberman that turned out to be a malignancy.
I had a huge one removed from my english setter this spring. The vet said it was the biggest one he’d ever seen (he had to bring it out to show me - what a guy. just like an 8 year old boy). This was on his side and was probably 4" x 6" by about an inch deep.
StG
Most of the time lipomas have a distinct feel to them. And if we think that is what the lump is, we typically leave them alone. Though do watch them.
I hesitate to aspirate anything I think might be a mast cell tumor. You can pis* them off pretty easily and getting a massive mast cell degranulation can cause a pretty bad, often life threatening, problem. If I do aspirate a mass and discover that it is a mast cell tumor (I look at the aspirate myself after I do it), I promptly get some benadryl into the patient!!
Some people want lipomas removed, which is fine. But most people don’t, unless they cause the dog a problem.
Cats seldom get them BTW.
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