13-Year-Old Basset Hound Bump
Anastasia smiled up at Doc Truli and wagged her tail. After 8 years of annual check-ups, Anastasia still thought Doc Truli had nothing to do with the shots and blood draws. What a sweet, trusting, simple Basset Hound. What a doll!
"Hi, Doc! Where's my treat?"
A soft fatty lump lived in the middle of the basset girl’s tail. Recently, it had begun to grow larger. So large, it might circumnavigate the tail. If this happened, and the lump continued to enlarge, Anastasia might need a tail amputation just to control the locally invasive, benign tumor.
A round, hairy, 2 inch around soft lump sticks out of the side of the tail
Maybe we should remove this...hmm...
“I recommend Anastasia undergo surgery to have that fatty lump removed as soon as possible. If it continues growing at this rate, she might lose her tail!” said Doc Truli.
Another, smaller new lump grew on the outside surface of Anastasia’s ear flap (pinna). This lump was covered with fur, round, and symmetrical. A needle aspirate into the lump revealed only red blood cells. No cancer cells spilled into the needle for analysis under the microscope.
“Any time I aspirate blood from a lump, I advise we go ahead and remove that lump,” said Doc Truli. “Bumps with that much blood supply have easy and ready access to the bloodstream. They can travel if they want to. That’s not good for the body. We want to get that lump off the ear quickly, before it has a chance to spread,” advised the Doc.
New raised, haired, round, soft ear bump on the external pinna.
The ear bump removed in a straightforward way. It consisted of a benign hemangioma, which is a tumor of red blood cells that does not show microscopic features of being aggressive or mobile.
The tail bump took some work. It actually did not pop out of the skin in one piece as expected. After some exploration and careful removal of all parts of the lump, there was enough skin left to close the surgical site nicely. The tail healed in 2 weeks and Anastasia feels like a new dog!
Did you see what the bump was filled with? My bernese is having the same surgery tomorrow, they attempted to origianlly drain the bump and blood came out, so its getting removed. Would like to hear what you found.
Thanks
Dear Suzanne,
It was so many years ago, I cannot rightly remember. I can say, if your vet gets blood out, it is absolutely the right thing to remove the beastie. Bumps with a good blood supply can use that blood to grow or spread. They need a definitive diagnosis for the best treatment outcome possible. I wish your Berner well.
-Dr Truli