Hello Lab Parents! I found this forum a few weeks ago and I wanted to come back and post an update. I have an 8 year old black lab who was diagnosed with a mast cell tumour on her right side 18 months ago. She underwent surgery and had the mass successfully removed. We’ve been back twice already in that time to have biopsies (fine needle aspirates) taken of two more lumps and, thankfully, they were run of the mill fatty lumps. Three weeks ago I noticed a lump on Darcie’s front left wrist and I hadn’t seen before. Given the size, I was quite surprised I hadn’t seen it as I’ve been super vigilant since her cancerous lump. I, of course, consulted Dr Google who had nothing positive to say and Osteosarcoma was the only possible cause. Many tears and anxiety attacks ensued! I was traumatised with the thought of having to cut her leg off so we took a trip to the vets the next day. They tried, unsuccessfully, to take a biopsy and recommended an x-ray to cover all bases. In the time between the initial consultation and the x-ray, I found yet another lump on her left shoulder blade. It wasn’t huge (maybe a malteaser size) so another biopsy was added to the list of things to do whilst she was sedated. The results? Early arthritis and another fatty lump! Safe to say I am SO relieved. As we know, labs are renowned for getting lumps and bumps as they get older and sometimes you can’t help but panic at the thought of anything bad happening to our fur babies. Hopefully this post will make someone out there feel a bit better should they be in a similar situation. My advice is to be vigilant (nobody knows them better than you!), get to your vet as soon as you can if you’re worried and try not to visit Dr Google too much! Lots of love, Sam&Darcie
Hi Sam I could write a book on Mast cell tumours so with you all the way on worry about new lumps. Toby’s journey is in the “Mast cell tumour diagnosis “ thread. As you say it is important to get lumps checked out as well as regularly checking for any new lumps. The sooner they can be treated the better. All the best.
Thanks for posting this. My 7 year old girl developed a lump on her left leg. It was a fatty lump and removed in June 2020 with no issues. Fast forward to Dec 2020. The same leg started to swell and she developed a limp. This quickly lead to a tumor mass growing in her stomach and we had no choice but to put her down as it was inoperable. That was the worst day of my life and I'm still morning over the loss of my best friend...
