My dog has a large mammary tumor. Could it be cancer or metastasis?

She may have mammary cancer which is fairly common in unspayed dogs. Your vet can perform either a biopsy or a fine needle aspirate and cytology to confirm the nature of the mass. If it comes back as mammary cancer, full screening pre-operative bloodwork as well as chest radiographs to rule out metastasis to the lungs will likely be discussed. If chest rads show that cancer has already spread to her lungs, unfortunately surgical removal under anesthesia may not be practical. Good luck-

An unspayed female dog with a lump on one of the teats is almost always breast cancer. It could either be malignant or benign but, since you stated it has grown very large in a short period of time my guess is that it is malignant. it is very unlikely to be a hernia. It is possible, just not likely. You really need to get her to your vet for an exam so you can get a proper diagnosis and discuss treatment plans. Hope this helps. Best wishes to you and Kodi.

Unfortunately mammary tumors are very common in unspayed dogs, and 50% of them are malignant. The prognosis depends on whether or not the tumor is malignant or not, and if it has spread. Given that it's growing, removing it would be best as well as spaying Lilly in my opinion (spaying her prevents her from developing a pyometra). The vet doing the surgery can submit the removed lump to a lab to determine if it's malignant or not, and likely will submit local lymph nodes to see if the cancer has spread there. That should give a prognosis as to life expectancy for her. I'm sorry you are going through this, and in the future, I strongly recommend to not listen to a groomer about veterinary medicine. They are not trained in veterinary medicine, and really should not be giving advice on lumps. Any suspicious lump should always be checked out by a vet promptly. Best of luck, I hope this helps!

Poor Katana. Unfortunatley, there is no way to know exactly the type of tumor this is without doing an exam and taking an aspirate of it to look at it under the microscope. From the looks of the picture though, I am really concerned that it is malignant. From its location, it is most likely a mammary cell carcinoma or a mast cell tumor. I would strongly recommend to have this surgically removed if possible ASAP and have it sent in to the pathologist to diagnose the exact type of tumor. Your vet will be able to give you other options if this isn't possible. I hope this helps!

Hello. The most likely cause for the lump on Moet is mammary cancer. You do want to have your veterinarian examine Moet as soon as possible & schedule her for surgery. Fortunately, breast cancer in dogs is not as aggressive as it is in women, so removing the tumor may be be curative for this site. Unfortunately, other tumors can turn up in other parts of the mammary chain, so you may want to discuss any follow up chemotherapy after the tumor has been analyzed by a pathologist. Sorry for some bad news, but I am glad you are looking for information. The sooner you address this, the better things will be for Moet. Good luck & thanks for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

It looks like the bump is inline with her mammary chain. Intact females are prone to developing mammary tumors. Is is about a 50% chance of it being malignant. I would recommend surgical removal with biopsy. I usually recommend that the patient also be spayed at the same time to decrease the likelihood of further mammary tumor development. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

Assuming Kara is in good health otherwise - which should be established with blood work and x-rays of the chest, to ensure that the tumor hasn't metastasized - then I would recommend proceeding with surgery. Mammary tumors can be quite invasive and aggressive, but depending on the grade surgery can be curative. Just because a dog is old, it doesn't necessarily mean they can't have anesthesia - you just have to take precautions, and find a vet who is capable of taking special care. I would also get a definitive diagnosis as to what the mass is before making any decisions, There are lots of benign lumps that grow all over dogs' bodies, and just because this one is in the mammary area, it isn't necessarily an aggressive cancer. A fine needle aspiration biopsy can usually tell you what these are.