Shepparton News

Lumps and bumps

- DR BRETT DAVIS Shepparton Veterinary Clinic weekendlif­e@sheppnews.com.au

You have just noticed a funnylooki­ng lump on your pet. What should you do?

Same thing you would do if you found a funny lump on your own body — get it checked.

Skin cancers are something we are only too familiar with in humans in this part of the world. Fortunatel­y the nasty melanomas that people can get are not common in our pets.

There are quite a range of skin lumps and bumps that can pop up on our dogs and cats, some nasty and some very benign.

Lipomas are a very common lump that can appear under the skin in just about any animal that has fat cells, including most of our domestic pets. They are perhaps a little more common in older animals and critters carrying a little extra weight.

They are very benign. That is, they don’t spread to other parts of the body. However, it is common for animals to develop multiple lipomas. They are only ever really a problem if they grow very large or in a specific area where they are physically a problem, such as between the toes or near an eye or something like that.

Sebaceous cysts are another common skin lump. They are often smooth, vary in size from very small like a pin head, to about the size of a grape. They are non-cancerous and generally only become an issue if they burst or bleed and then become a sore that takes a while to go away.

One of the nastiest skin lumps we see in dogs in particular are mast cell tumours.

Short-haired, larger breed dogs such as boxers, bull mastiffs and Staffordsh­ire bull terriers are prone to these nasty skin tumours, but they can appear in any breed.

The tumours start small and can grow quickly. They can vary in colour, sometimes will be covered by hair and sometimes not.

What makes them nasty is they can spread to other parts of the body such as lymph nodes, lungs and other internal organs quickly. Once they spread, treatment is difficult or sometimes impossible. Like all nasty cancers, they can spread quickly. Leaving them for a week or a month can make a huge difference to treatment outcomes.

Warts, skin tags, histiocyto­mas, haemangios­arcomas and squamous cell carcinomas are other common lumps that we see in dogs and cats in our practice.

What can we do if we notice an unusual lump or bump on our pets?

There are some very simple tests that can be done very quickly and very cheaply to help ascertain what a lump is and whether it is a concern or not.

Nasty lumps will generally grow quickly, so if you notice a lump behaving in this way, getting it checked sooner rather than later may be the difference between saving a life or not.

Often the first thing we would do to check a lump would be to take a fine needle aspirate. Essentiall­y, poking the lump with a needle, taking a small number of cells from the lump, squirting them onto a slide and then looking at them under a microscope. It is a quick, simple test that is all done at the time of examinatio­n of your pet.

Most of the time, this will give us enough informatio­n to know whether we should be worried and look into treatment options, or not worried and just keep a close eye on the lump for changes.

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