My old dog has a painful lipoma. Is surgery safe for his age?

No, surgery is the only way to remove Jack's lipoma. If your vet has already aspirated the mass to examine the cells under the microscope and finds that it has not been growing dramatically, monitoring at home can be quite reasonable for many lipomas. If the lipoma begins growing quickly, bleeds, or seems to limit Jack's movement, surgery would likely be beneficial.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. If it is possible, I would recommend having the x-rays done without sedation and depending on how the x-rays look and how her blood work looks, consider removal of the mass under anesthesia. She is not too old for anesthesia but the risk of anesthetic complications rises with age. As long as her heart, lungs and blood work are normal, she should be fine under anesthesia. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

The risk of anesthesia would probably be the biggest concern for Nevah. We always evaluate our patients and put them into a certain class of risk prior to the anesthesia. When we have patients with high anesthetic risk, we usually will notify the owner first, before we do anything, so they are comfortable with the procedure knowing the risk. We will also alter the drugs and procedure as necessary to avoid risk. A skinny healthy dog is not necessarily a risk. However, overly thin dogs may have an underlying health condition that is making them skinny. Before considering the risk, you would want to get bloodwork done on Nevah. This will show if there are any signs of organ failure or disease. Most veterinarians would require this prior to doing anesthesia on a dog this old. After all the information is acquired, your veterinarian would be able to advise you about the risk versus the benefit. If the dental disease is really bad and/or the lumps are cancerous, then the benefit would likely outweigh the risk in most of these situations. However, if the teeth are not too bad and the tumors appear benign, then it may not be worth the risk. I hope that helps.

Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I can see that Jake has a very large, round, well demarcated growth on his side. While it is impossible to tell exactly what type of tumor it is and give a prognosis following removal, it is likely that removing the tumor will make him more comfortable. Depending on the approach, the surgical site may be rather large and require some care and pain management at home. As long as Jake is otherwise healthy, surgery and anesthesia are relatively safe as well. I hope this helps and am happy to answer any other questions you have!

Gumbo definitely is at increased anesthetic risk (risk of adverse events during anesthesia and risk of poor recovery) at age 14 (7-8 years of age is considered geriatric), even with normal blood work (normal liver/kidney values). In addition those are extremely large masses and surgical removal could definitely affect anal tone (result in incontinence) assuming that anesthesia and recovery do go well. There is also a possibility that the type of cancer Gumbo has is metastatic and has already spread to the lungs for which the prognosis is poor (chest rads would be recommended prior to proceeding with surgery). I would recommend bringing Gumbo to have the anal glands checked regularly to make sure that they are empty. I also recommend keeping Gumbo as comfortable as possible as consulting with your veterinarian about treatment and humane endpoints if the masses become ulcerated.

In a senior dog like Sandy, there is always a chance that a lump could be malignant. This does need to be seen by a 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 while the dog is awake 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. There are senior dogs who have anesthesia without problems, and that may be the case with Sandy. The lump needs to be diagnosed first before worrying about going to surgery, so give your vet a call in the morning to make an appointment. Best of luck, I hope this helps!

Poor Lily! These lumps look quite irritated and ulcerated. She may already be experiencing some degree of pain and discomfort from these lumps, as indicated by her chewing on them. Other signs of pain in dogs include a decreased appetite, lethargy, and abnormal vocalization. When it comes to surgery, age is not a disease, so if Lily's physical exam and pre-operative blood testing is normal, she is likely to do well with surgical removal of these lumps. It may be worth discussing surgical options, as well as pain medication options, with Lily's vet. I hope this helps and that all goes well!