Solids lumps on a dog?

OK - need experience/thoughts on lumps on a dog. He was in to the vet on Fri - vet was going to drain the one lump, thinking it was a fatty tumor, but got blood.

He has one, what I would consider large, lump on his shoulder. One is rectangular on his chest.

He's 13 years old & I have limited history prior to Thursday.

What are you thoughts or experience with lumps on a dog?

(knocks on wood) I've had a number of "lumpy" dogs and not a single one of them had malignant growths. Ellie Mae was the worst. Most of hers were filled with a cottage cheese looking material, but there were a few that when they were lanced, bled a lot. She was a 55 pound dog and when her lump hit the size of a golf ball, she would get uncomfortable and we would have it lanced. They appeared in random parts of her body and rarely in the same place twice.

(OTB) Jethro and current dog Spike were/are also lumpy dogs. Spike had a lump on his foot that upon surgery looked cancerous, but when sent to a lab, turns out that it wasn't.

You need a biopsy on them to ensure they are not malignant. The odds are in your favor that they are not, but need to be safe about it.

Did this help at all?

Yes that helped - I'm scared to first find out the cost of "lump-ectomy"/biopsy & secondly scared that they are cancerous.

I've had more than one vet tell me that only a very small percentage of lumps (like 1% if I remember correctly) are malignant. The odds are really in your favor.

Depending on what the lump consists of, most times its just a quick lance and they can squeeze out the contents. Rarely any stitches. Spike's foot was the only time that we had to do any type of intensive surgery on any of them, and that was because it was between his toes. And sorry to be gross, but one time Ellie Mae had a lump on her shoulder. DH was pressing on it to see how it felt when it burst (like a pimple), only this pimple was about the size of a golf ball. One of our dog "ewwwwww" moments.

Sending vibes that it's not malignant!

Well - this guy is in dire need of a dental...so he'll be under when they start hacking into him. He's got a lot of warts, too....that if I'm gonna put him under, will be removed. These are some pretty big 'warts'.

Gigi s dental and wart and lumps ran me about 300$

The one on his chest is very solid, that one worries me & a few other people. The one on his shoulder is not so much so solid, but looks almost bruised for lack of a nicer way of putting it. Guess I'm just a worry-wart....and questioning his adoptability.

I would say, get the dental, but on a 13 year old dog, why put him through more than what he desperately needs?

If he is otherwise healthy, and the lumpy bumps don't seem to cause him pain or discomfort, let him be; at his age, it's not a good thing to put them under, and when you do, it shouldn't be for very long, as their chances of fully recovering decrease.

If you want to check for cancer, just have them pull some of the 'yuck' out of those lumps and get them tested that way, rather than going in, and removing them and it turns out they were just fatty tumors that might decrease with a proper diet and some exercise. If he is overweight at all, they could very well be fatty type tumors.

Copper had a hard cyst on her back that turned up when she was a young adult... Vet figured would be more bother to her to remove it so we just remember where it is to warn the groomers when she gets shaved in the summer. Been 10 years now, hasn't gotten bigger or smaller.