Here's What You Need to Know About Fatty Lumps and Tumors on Your Doggy

There are things a dog owner needs to know about fatty tumors, including it's important to be certain that it is, indeed, what your dog has!

If your dog’s diagnosis was made on the basis of a physical exam only, then the diagnosis is actually only an educated guess. Although a veterinarian may have a lot of experience seeing lumps and bumps, only a biopsy of the lump tissue can provide a definitive diagnosis. Some veterinarians prefer to perform first a fine needle aspirate of the lump in which a tiny needle is inserted into the lump to take a sample for evaluation. An aspirate can be performed without anesthesia and is relatively painless. The problem with fine needle aspirate results is that they can give false readings that do not reflect a true representation of the lump’s characteristics.

In other words, the only real way to make a decisive judgment regarding the fatty lump is to have it removed for a proper assessment.

Thank you to Dog Time for this terrific piece of information and also, the relief it has given countless dog owners who might, like us, “freak out” at the sight of such a lump!