Sudden Lump!

[Nutmaggy]

Hi,

Monday night I was petting Nutmeg and and when I went to go rub her stomach I noticed a swollen lump. The lump is where I guess you could say her "belly button" would be. It's probably about an inch or maybe even less below her rib cage, right in the center. Naturally this caused me to panic and freak out. Since it didn't appear to hurt Nutmeg when I touched the lump and rubbed it and also because she was acting fine (eating, running around the beach all day, and had normal toileting) I convinced myself to observe her for a day or two until I got back home to Boston when at that time I could take Nutmeg in to see her Vet. I also thought maybe she got bitten by a sand flea or something while at the beach. However, yesterday the lump was a little bigger or maybe it was just my paranoia. I'm not really sure, but it's for sure noticeable. The lump is dime sized or maybe smaller (feels big though) and "hard" when touched lightly or I guess you could say it's solid, but the skin is freely moveable over it. It is also raised/protruding out from her skin. I can push on it and it seems to go in a little, but I'm afraid to apply any type of pressure with force. Pushing lightly on the lump and wiggling it doesn't affect Nutmeg at all. She has no reaction to me examining her lump. Nutmeg has been healthy since the day I got her. She will be 2 years old in another 3 weeks. She is spayed also. I'm sure I'll find out what is going on with her when the Vet examines her today and/or after tests, if need be.

Naturally a lump is the last thing you want to feel on your yorkie. First thought is "Oh jeez can this be a malignant tumor?" Hopefully this isn't the case. I'm really praying it's nothing serious. Fingers crossed.

Has anyone ever experienced something like this? Any insights? I find coming across a sudden lump on your yorkie to be very strange especially since I rub Nutmeg's stomach all the time (daily - she loves it!) and the lump just appeared out of nowhere Monday night. Could it be a umbilical hernia? I've googled images and it looks like one, but would a dog who is spayed and 2 years old suddenly get an umbilical hernia, is it possible? Perhaps it could be a smaller hernia? Nutmeg is very active. She goes for walks daily (2 to 3 daily walks, approx 20 minutes each) and she chases my cat around the house daily as well, so she's always on the move. Not sure if being extremely active causes hernias? However, the day before I noticed the lump she was a bit constipated - straining to move her bowels. Maybe it could be a fatty cyst too? Sorry....no one is going to know, except a Vet obviously. Thoughts are racing through my head right now and I'm just very concerned and hope it's nothing serious. I'd like to hear though if anyone has experienced something similar or if their thoughts.

Here's are 2 pics of Nutmeg's lump and as soon as I get the diagnosis/report from Nutmeg's Vet I'll let everyone know. We have an appointment in about an hour.

http://oi43.tinypic.com/2lv24jc.jpg

http://oi39.tinypic.com/35d9rwl.jpg

[lillymae]

Oooh that lump looks a bit red & irritated. I hope all went well at the vet today & it's not too serious. Please update when you can. Welcome to YT!

[Nutmaggy]

Originally Posted by lillymae

Oooh that lump looks a bit red & irritated. I hope all went well at the vet today & it's not too serious. Please update when you can. Welcome to YT!

Thank you. Well, the Vet thinks and said in her opinion it could either be: 1) a Histiocytoma - basically a collection of white blood cells, nothing to worry about and the lump spontaneously regresses without treatment. The lumps are usually red and aggressive looking and occur in younger dogs (1-2 years old) or 2) a tumor, also the lumps are red and aggressive looking too.

The Vet aspirated the lump with a needle to collect cells for testing and I won't know until either Friday or Monday what's really going on when the results come back from the specialist. The Vet doesn't think it's any type of hernia since the lump is pretty solid. I guess hernia lumps are more fatty to touch. She also thinks the location of the lump (where her umbilical cord was) is just a coincidence, and she's probably right.

At any rate I'm hoping for the best and that it's simply just a Hitiocytoma and not a serious mast cell tumor. I'm very nervous. Nutmeg is still a baby and not even 2yrs old yet!

[jadabug]

I am glad you took Sophie in to the vets. I had the same thing with Bogie just yesterday.http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sic...yer-bogie.html

I could never put off taking my babies in for something like this. If I had waited it would be much worse than it is. I will check for an update on Sophie and pray that she is ok.

[gidget529]

Hoping everything went well w nutmeg.

[jadabug]

Originally Posted by jadabug

I am glad you took Sophie in to the vets. I had the same thing with Bogie just yesterday.http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sic...yer-bogie.html

I could never put off taking my babies in for something like this. If I had waited it would be much worse than it is. I will check for an update on Sophie and pray that she is ok.

I am so sorry for getting your baby's name wrong I hope Nutmeg is doing ok.

[shodanusmc]

If it freely moves over the skin I doubt it is a hernia or protrusion. Most likely a cyst or some ingrown follicle. Hope it is nothing at all serious. If it just popped up, I doubt it. Best of luck to the both of you

[Nutmaggy]

Originally Posted by jadabug

I am so sorry for getting your baby's name wrong I hope Nutmeg is doing ok.

Thanks! No worries on getting Nutmeg's name mixed up. Hopefully, I'll be hearing from the Vet today or Monday on Nutmeg's cytology results.

[Nutmaggy]

Just heard back from the Vet. The good news is that the pathologist specialist didn't see any cancerous cells, however; they have no idea what the lump is? Still kind of scary. All they saw was a lot of inflammation and thought that it could perhaps be an abscess, infection or that something foreign got into that area. They gave me 2 options 1) start Nutmeg on antibiotics to see if the lump goes away or 2) just go in and remove the lump and have it biopsied. The problem is if the antibiotics don't work then we are back at square 1 and I think the sooner that this gets removed and taken care of the better. That's what Nutmeg's Vet also thought was the best option since the lump is a decent size. I just hate having to see Nutmeg have to go thorough surgery for this, but I'm leaning on just getting the lump removed and biopsied I think.. I wouldn't want to prolong something and notice no results from the antibiotics, nor would I want the lump to grow or get worse which would make the surgery harder. Curious to hear what others may think of the situation and/or what they might do in this circumstance?

[Cutie_Emmy]

This happened to my Emmett in October. I had the lump removed and tested, and it turned out to be a skin infection. He healed up in two weeks and that area is just fine now. If your vet thinks surgery is the best option, I'd listen. Better safe than sorry!

[Nutmaggy]

Originally Posted by Cutie_Emmy

This happened to my Emmett in October. I had the lump removed and tested, and it turned out to be a skin infection. He healed up in two weeks and that area is just fine now. If your vet thinks surgery is the best option, I'd listen. Better safe than sorry!

Thanks for the reply. Did your Vet perform a fine needle aspirate? Also, did your Vet suggest that you could try antibiotics at all? Nutmeg's Vet suggested that I could try the antibiotics but thinks just removing the lump is the best bet. I guess I agree with her. I do have the surgery scheduled for this Thursday. However, I guess I'm just wondering if I should give the antibiotics a try first before surgery? I put a call into a few other Vet specialist to get their opinions as well. The surgery is a tad bit expensive ($1200-$1500), but that's not an issue. It obviously would be nice to see if if I could spend a few hundred on antibiotics vs. the cost of surgery and if the antibiotics would help, but in the same sentence I don't want the lump to get worse either. I have friends who are in the medical field (Dr's and RN's) and they were just kind of surprised I guess that Nutmeg's Vet wants to jump right into surgery. I guess they said in the medical field you are always taught to 1st try the least invasive procedure to see if that works because surgery opens up the risk for other problems (infection and so forth).

[celstu1]

Ok, my fletcher gets them, he has 1 on each side of his body. I took him to the vet for it. They tried to get something out of it by squeezing it. They told me that if it was loose from the skin and moved around when I touched it, it was more than likely a cyst or even just a pimple. Well a few weeks later I looked at it, it was about the size of a pencil eraser, so I squeezed it to see if anything came out and sure enough, a bunch of white pus and then a trace of blood, like if you popped a large pimple. He didn't love me squeezing it too much but it did not really phase him when I was done. So I tried the other side and same thing.

They were just pimples or cysts/small boils under the skin that finally came to a head.

I can feel them still though just a little bit and want to try to squeeze the rest out of them and put some alcohol on it to help dry it out, keep out infection and heal up, but I feel bad that it hurts him when I squeeze it.

It looked just like the pics you posted.

[Nutmaggy]

Thanks for the reply! Interesting... I don't think I could squeeze Nutmeg's lump. I think I'd be to scared to even try! Her lump is pretty solid but can be wiggled around a little bit. But the great news is that I woke up today and examined Nutmeg and her lump is MUCH smaller and not as irritated looking! I called the Vet and we have put off Nutmeg's surgery. The Vet told me since the fine needle aspirate didn't detect any cancerous cells and because the lump is shrinking on it's own that we could let the "natural healing process" take it's course and just observe the lump for a week or two and go from there. I'm hoping with a little time the lump completely disappears. The only thing I can think of that Nutmeg got into was that she had some burrs stuck to her (the prickly little things from old flower heads), so maybe one stuck her in that area and irritated it or something? If I notice any puss then antibiotics can be used Nutmeg's Vet said. So...we shall see. Fingers crossed.

[lillymae]

I hope it's nothing to serious. Years ago when we had our 1st yorkie , somehow she managed to get a foxtail in her vagina & it went up through the eustachian tube & out her ovary & came out her belly. We brushed her daily & never saw it nor did she ever act like anything was wrong. One day after I bathed her, I turned her onto her back to dry & brush out her tummy & there it was . What looked like a huge pimple so I gently squeezed it & all kinds of ugly stuff came out. I got rite in the car & took her to the vet & the vet did surgery rite away as he knew something was in there. Tiffany was 5 mo old at the time so she was do for her spay so the vet did the spay. When we got there to pick her up he showed us the ovary & the foxtail & it was about 1 1/2 inches long. The vet told us that this was not the 1st time he had seen this happen & the amazing part was even when I gently squeezed the lump & popped it, my baby girl never flinched or acted like she felt a thing.

[lillymae]

2nd story. One of my daycare moms has a Chesapeake Bay Retriever who recently developed a red lump on his side , looked just like your pups lump only about 2x bigger around. She took him to the vet & was told to keep an eye on it & gave antibiotics. After the antibiotics the lump looked smaller & not red at all then about 1 wk later it started to grow again so the vet went in & found nothing. The biopsy results showed nothing but the incision would not heal. She took the dog to WSU where they did CT & found the trail traveling all through his body from cheat grass. They were able to locate it & remove it & the dog is fine now after $ 6,500.00 & a whole lot of stress.