My dog's lump had no liquid on needle test. Should I wait or remove?

This could be a seroma from an injury, a cyst, abscess or a tumor. Cysts and abscesses need to be drained by a vet. If your vet suspects a tumor, he will do a fine needle aspirate to determine whether it is a harmless lipoma, which does not need to be removed unless it is ulcerating or bothers the dog due to its location or size, or another tumor that needs to be removed. Please make an appointment with your veterinarian for an exam of the mass.

This can be a benign lump, or it could be a lipoma or cyst. Any suspicious lumps should be examined by the vet. The vet can perform a test called a fine needle aspirate on it. To do this, the vet sticks a small needle into the lump to get a sample of its cells, and examines the cells on a slide under a microscope. It's usually painless to the animal, and relatively quick to perform. Once the cause of the lump is diagnosed, the vet can discuss treatment options if needed. I'd give his vet a call tomorrow to make him an appointment. Best of luck.

Bumps can be benign, as you know. If your veterinarian has any concerns that this is more than just a lipoma, then they will likely recommend removal. The goal would be complete removal and hopefully be curative. But you can’t make a plan until she is examined. I would not wait until December, I would go in early and see what your doctor has to say about it. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

Hi and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. If the lum has not gotten bigger and remains stable in size and character, I think it is safe to wait until the 18th for removal. Your veterinarian is likely concerned the mass is cancerous. Therefore she is likely recommending removal for a better diagnosis. It really could be anything, from an infected cancerous mass or an infected benign mass. Removal of the mass and sending it for histopathology would be the gold standard for diagnosis and prognosis.

Some types of growths are not able to diagnosed with an aspirate, and require a biopsy for diagnosis. It could be that your vet is concerned that based on the appearance and the way it feels (hard and fixed) that the growth is malignant, and removal is the best option instead of doing an aspirate. More than likely, your vet will send the growth on Koda to the lab for a biopsy after removal. It can happen that the vet decides to remove a growth without doing an aspirate, so this is a normal occurrence.

I am assuming that your vet did a needle aspirate and wasn't able to get a diagnosis. The only way to know the cause of the lumps would be to remove them and submit to a lab for biopsy. As long as he is otherwise healthy then the risk of anesthesia is low. If he needs a dental cleaning then your vet could do both at the same time. If you don't want to have them removed then you could monitor for a month or so and see how the lumps change. If they are growing then they really should be removed.

As the lump as already been removed, it is quite safe to wait that long, the main reason for sending it to the lab is for you to know if it is a benign tumor or a malignant tumor, if it is a malignant tumor, the prognosis will not be good, even if the lump has been removed cleanly. if it is benign then you have very little to worry about.