This little Finnish Lapphund we just got from the pound has a mammary tumor. It’s small and hasn’t spread to the lymph nodes.
I know of a lot of bad stories. Anyone have a good outcome?
She now on special foods and supplements that are supposed to help dogs with cancer…
She’ll have a biopsy as soon as we can arrange it. The vet set it for Jan 8, but we want it moved up.
Sorry to hear about that 
Don’t panic right now though, get the biopsy done (its not an invasive procedure, WHY would they want to wait until Jan 8th???) and then go from there.
Some are less malignant than others. It doesn’t mean the end is near, especially if it is a single tumor and not a chain of mammary tumors. However, I would get it removed ASAP before it “may” start working up the chain. Ask for a referral if you must, or let your vet know you are concerned and would like it dealt with asap.
I have known some, in a similar situation to your dog, who have done well. Some have been cured depending on the type of mass with a surgical excision. Some have required followup surgeries and chemotherapy and demise fairly quickly. However this is more often seen when there is mets to the lymph nodes or obvious mammary chains.
Good luck and jingles for a good biopsy result!
Thank you Squish the Bunny. I will talk to the vet today and see if we can get her in very soon. I’m thinking Monday in case there is a post surgery problem.
We went to the vet but it was a different one who was there so I did not get to talk to her. That was disappointing. However, we did change the appointment to Monday.
Now, a problem is that she is going to get her dental work done at the same time and they don’t have full dental x-ray machine. They do have x-ray film for their regular x-ray machine. I’m not sure that’s OK. The biopsy will be the surgical removal of the tumor.
This vet is probably good, but I sooooo miss my great vet. Lucky for her she moved out of state, or I (and her other patients) would be on her doorstep.
My previous dog was a stray Golden Retriever female, not claimed despite posters, ads, etc. I kept her. Then at her first vet appointment, a tumour was found. Sigh. As a BC survivor myself, I went ahead and she had the surgery.
Then about a year later, she went into heat and ended up with pyometra. During surgery, the vet found another mammary tumour which was removed.
I was told everything was well and she would heal. She did but 6 months later, she started having seizures… I had never witnessed anything like that and got really scared.
After months of trying to control the seizures (and lots of $$$ to the vet), I felt it was better to put her down. She slept constantly and I had to carry her outside. that’s when the vet said she was pretty sure it was related to the tumours… thanks, after cashing in for months…
I loved that dog, she was wonderful and so thankful to be looked after and loved. I still miss her.
I don’t know if we could have done anything to find out if it had spread, but I had already spent so much on my “free” dog… I guess I would have stopped trying to control the seizures sooner had I known they were due to the cancer spreading.
Best wishes for you dog. She deserves a happy life now!
And I changed vets…
FalseImpression, what a tragic story. I’m so sorry, but it certainly sounds like you did everything you could for your beloved Golden Retriever.
I talked with the vet today for the first time about this. My daughter had taken her in. She didn’t want to do a needle biopsy as she said they aren’t reliable so it really isn’t confirmed, nor is she convinced, that it is malignant. It is at least possible that it is benign. The vet seemed competent as my daughter had opined. She did say, as I think too, that if it is a malignant mammary tumor, the prognosis is very bleak, but what can you do? I did ask about preventative chemo after the removal, and she said she’d rely on CSU’s recommendation after the biopsy results were in.
She really is a very special dog - absolutely precious.
As for your vet, I really dislike vets like that one seems to have been. When the money is more important than the animal, it is really difficult for the owner to figure out what really is best for the animal.
[QUOTE=Coyoteco;7293356]
We went to the vet but it was a different one who was there so I did not get to talk to her. That was disappointing. However, we did change the appointment to Monday.
Now, a problem is that she is going to get her dental work done at the same time and they don’t have full dental x-ray machine. They do have x-ray film for their regular x-ray machine. I’m not sure that’s OK. The biopsy will be the surgical removal of the tumor.
This vet is probably good, but I sooooo miss my great vet. Lucky for her she moved out of state, or I (and her other patients) would be on her doorstep.[/QUOTE]
Cancel the dentistry for now, unless your dog’s mouth is in a lot of pain. Wait until the biopsy results come back from the mammary mass.
If the vet suspects any kind of metastatic cancer from the mammary mass, 3 view thoracic radiographs should be done instad of a dental (should even be done before removal of the mass).
If the mammary mass comes back benign, then you can go on with other preventive medicine but I wouldn’t worry about that right now 
SquishtheBunny, One of her back teeth is probably seriously cracked and this vet thinks it is at risk of breaking and/or causing an infection. She also indicated that this was an opportunity to do both with one application of anesthetic. I definitely consider the dental less important but didn’t object to doing them both. Is there a reason to not do the dental now aside from the possibility of receiving a poor prognosis?
She goes in on Monday at 7:30 am. I didn’t talk to her about the radiographs specifically on the mass. I know she plans to remove the mass with clear margins, send it to CSU for analysis and recommendation.
I confess to not feeling sufficiently knowledgeable about this, and miss my old vet tremendously. I do try to know what’s going on, but feel pretty uninformed on this. Right now it is a fluid filled mass about the size of a quarter. She said there is no lymph node involvement. With the kind of cancer this potentially is, I’m not sure that the lack of lymph node involvement means that it’s spread will be slower.
Its difficult to know what route to follow when you don’t know whats going on. For sure, its a difficult spot to be in.
Many mammary lumps are not malignancies, and by description of “fluid filled mass” sounds more like some type of cyst (which are often benign). So if your vet feels fairly strong about this then proceeding with a dental under the same anesthetic should be fine. Have the mass removed FIRST however, incase there is anesthetic related reasons to have the procedure shortened.
Vets go by the experience they have though, they don’t have eyes that can see into masses and know “ah yes, this one is benign”. From experience, one could feel a fatty mass (lipoma) and fluid filled mass (seroma/cyst) and through experience inform clients that in X% of the time, these are benign. And the majority of the time they are absolutely right. However, a good vet will tell you that nothing is guaranteed and cytology or histology of the mass is important to diagnose what exactly it is. Something like an adenoma is not as scary as a carcinoma or sarcoma. The benign and the malignant are both found in the mammary glands. As well, although your vet can say by palpation that it has not spread to the peripheral lymph nodes, there are abdominal lymph nodes, and ones in the thorax that can not be palpated. Often mammary masses will spread in a chain along the glands in the dog (or cat) and eventually form as mets in the thorax. Benign mammary masses will sit there forever and not do much at all 
Sounds like your plan however is reasonable right now considering the description of the mass and your dogs fractured tooth. I would ask that they address the mass first just incase there is any reason to wake your dog up early from anesthetic. If everything is good, continue on with the dental. After you receive “good news” from CSU then hopefully you wont have to be back at the vet for a good long time
My vet does the opposite (dentals first), because they don’t want to be spraying mouth bacteria everywhere onto a fresh surgical site. I would let the vet make that call.
I have had dentals and mass removals done at the same time before. If the dog wasn’t an overt anesthesia risk then I wouldn’t anticipate having to cut the procedure short.
I’ve had good luck with fine needle aspirates of masses, to guide surgery. It’s too bad the OP’s vet hasn’t found the same. I previously had a vet like that, which resulted in invasive surgery for a lipoma, and repeat surgery for bigger margins on a mast cell tumor.
Thank you very much. Your posts have been very helpful, confirming some things I thought, and providing information that I didn’t have.
I will make that suggestion and make sure I reread this thread Monday morning.
Her name is “Bunny” by the way:). I really, really want this to work out for her, but that is what we all want, I know.
Mammary masses in dogs have about a 50% chance of being benign. Your vet is correct that fine needle biopsies are inaccurate for mammary tumours, very useful for most tumours but not mammary. An excisional biopsy is recommended for all mammary masses because mixed mammary tumours (benign) have the potential to become malignant. I would not hesitate to address the dental disease at the same time.
I like that 50 percent number. Thank you for the information Java. From what you both say, it sounds like the Monday surgery is not too off base, and I’ll certainly mention doing the biopsy first. I’ll discuss the x-rays with her, too. If anyone thinks of anything else, let me know.
My only personal experience with these tumors was an amazingly sweet and wonderful Boxer who had been “bred to death” and then apparently thrown out when the cancer progressed. She was picked up as a stray, and I pulled her from a shelter to give her a home for whatever time she had left. In her case, she had not been treated at all, the tumors had metastasized, her lungs were affected, etc. The vet who originally examined her estimated that she had about 6 months; she ended up being with me for two very happy weeks, during which she was spoiled absolutely rotten (she gained 7 lbs, shredded a huge foam bed, tried patio dining, had toys, blankets, beds, and a buddy, etc). Sadly, the tumors were more aggressive than initially thought, and when she stopped eating and started to have more labored breathing I had her euthanized.
Don’t panic over that - Gypsy’s case was WAY WAY WAY more advanced than it sounds like your dog’s is; treatment was not remotely an option by the time she came to me. I share it only because it was an absolute worst case scenario, and I still feel like it was an incredibly positive experience for both me and her. She didn’t go downhill slowly and waste away, she was happy and eating like a pig and playing with my other dog, and over a day or two just went rapidly downhill and we knew it was time. Doesn’t mean they all will be like that, but it helped me to know that she didn’t suffer for months on end. And, when I adopted her, two friends separately told me about dogs who had received a rather dire diagnosis of mammary tumors that were beyond hope. One friend’s dog did eventually die of them, but with some creative interventions from a specialty hospital, was happy and healthy for two years post-diagnosis. The other dog ended up having a long shot surgery and chemo and recovering perfectly, and eventually dying of old age. It sounds like you are doing all the right things - hope they can get her all fixed up and healthy, she sounds like an awesome dog!
Sending good thoughts for you and Bunny. I’m waiting for biopsy results now for my little JRT who had two small mammary tumors removed last week. The lab notified us that the results would be delayed for 72 hours because the samples required decalcification. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but the wait is terrible!
Pookah, I’m so sorry about your Boxer. It was so great, though, that you were there for her. She was so lucky to have you. Thanks for the good thoughts - she really is a special girl.
Scaredacoops, I would really like to have an update of your JRT when you get the results. The wait sounds sounds excruciating. Jingles for your sweet girl. Thanks for the good thoughts.
Update.
Bunny’s “broken” back tooth was not broken. It cleaned up nicely and is still there. A couple of little teeth on front were pulled.
Her mass was removed and the vet said it was “fatty” but that it didn’t look bad to her and that, though she can’t know, her instinct was that it was going to be OK.
Bunny had a very bloody discharge after the surgery and her best guess was that it was the stress since she did do blood work and a sample of the bloody diarrhea and there was nothing out of the ordinary. So, we’ll just watch that. The results will be back in about 10 days but she may get preliminary results in three - she’ll let me know as soon as she hears.
Thanks for all of the help on this. It’s a new vet to me and that’s disconcerting since I had such confidence in my old one.
Jingling for your dog. Fatty lumps are common… my current dog had one on his side and one in his neck. Since he was to have TTA surgery, we did biopsy them and both came back as lipomas. The surgeon removed the one in the neck…
I must say that on my golden, I never saw the mass as they were inside or required quite a bit of palpation for the vet to find them…
Let’s me optimistic… fatty is good!
thanks FalseImpression. Optimism is good:)
Fatty lumps = good! Here’s hoping that’s all you are dealing with! Bunny wants to be around for a LOOOONG time Im sure!
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