Sometimes it's the littlest things that can make a big difference in your dog's life. Finding a bump and aspirating it instead of watching and waiting. Don't ever let anybody talk you into watching cancer grow. Aspirating a bump is so easy and quick, why not just do it?
Thank you so much to Tracie Hotchner, Dog Film Festival and VCA Animal Hospitals for helping me with the PSA on See Something Do Something Cancer. Join us at the 1st annual Dog Film Festival in NYC on Oct. 3rd to seem amazing films about our canine companions. (Tix are on sale now!!) #whywaitaspirate
Posted by Dr Sue Cancer Vet on Saturday, September 12, 2015
JD is just on his way home from his mast cell removal surgery.
He had two little bumps. Small enough and innocent enough looking they would have made great candidates for the watch and see approach. But I've been following Dr. Sue long enough now, we decided to aspirate them. If they were harmless, then we'd know. If they were not, then we could do something.
At first sight, they looked harmless. One looked like a lipoma and the other looked like a cyst. Even looking at the slides, after the fine needle aspirate, one looked like a lipoma and the other like a cyst.
One of them is a lipoma. One of them turned out being a mast cell tumor.
If we left it to just watch it, we'd be watching cancer grow and eventually metastasize. Does that sound like a good plan? Not at all.
This way we got it out and there is a good chance that's all that it will take and we'll never hear of it again. Very often, taking care of masses while they are small, surgery is all it takes.
JD is resting on the couch now, crying for the girls he fell in love at the hospital.
Thunderstorm! Powers out! Time to cuddle with patients!
Posted by Walden Animal Hospital on Thursday, October 15, 2015
We will still have to wait for lab results on the removed tissue and other labs. We're hoping for good news both regarding clean margins and grade.
If you find a mass on your dog, don't wait, aspirate.
Because you don't know what the bump really is unless somebody looks at the actual cells.
Related articles:
It's That Time of the Year Again: Annual Wellness Exam and JD's Bumps
JD's Biopsy Results Revealed Mast Cell Tumor: You Don't Know What the Bump Is Unless You Look at the Cells