Should I drain my dog's slow-growing leg tumor instead of surgery?

That is a very large tumor that has likely outgrown its blood supply and is opening up. You can’t tell what type of tumor it is without aspirating the cells. At this point, the best option is to remove the tumor but it’s so large that this may be difficult but not impossible. I recommend to have this pup seen by the veterinarian as she needs medications to help the bleeding and a mass removal. Best of luck and please feel free to post any additional questions.

While surgical closure may be difficult, surgical excision of a mass, though expectedly benign, is the best recommendations. Prior to surgery, please make sure that your pet has been screened for other tumors or neoplasia with chest x-rays and an abdominal ultrasound. Consultation with a board certified surgeon may be considered.

That is probably the right advise, he is very old and the tumor will grow back for sure, it's just a matter of time unfortunately. it's probably best not to get him through that surgery as the recovery may be very problematic.

This looks like a very large tumor that has become necrotic and infected. When a tumor gets this large it starts to outgrow its blood supply and then portions of it die off and becomes necrotic. This tumor needs to be removed because it will not likely heal at this point. I would recommend taking Luigi to the vet as soon as possible to get him scheduled for surgery. Surgery at this age with such a bad infection does have some risks but I believe at this point the benefits of removing the tumor outweigh the risks of anesthesia. Good luck with your little guy.

Skin grafting can be tricky and there is a high risk that the graft would fail, especially when it is applied to an area where there previously was cancer. Mast cell tumors require 2 to 3cm margins and on the leg, many times, this is unachievable. Amputation is likely the best option. If you want to try and save the leg, I would discuss this further with a soft tissue surgeon and then an oncologist. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please feel free to contact me with any further questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Unfortunately there isn't really any way to shrink or remove a tumor without surgery, I have had some veterinarians have some luck in helping to stop bleeding from tumors with a Chinese medicine called yunnan baiyao. I would ask your vet if they feel this would be useful for your dog if the tumor is bleeding.

This tumor will not go away on its own. I agree, it is located in an area that would make removal very difficult. If you wanted to remove the tumor at this point the only way would be to do an amputation of the forelimb.