Help...what is this on Maggie's leg? (cross posted in lab chat) UPDATED 7-26

[maggieandfinn]

UPDATE: Maggie went to the vet tonight and she is staying overnite to have surgery tomorrow to have the tumor removed. The vet believes everything is okay and it will come back benign. We will pick her up tomorrow evening. Thanks again.


Tonight while playing with Maggie we noticed this spot on her leg. She isn't bothering it that we have seen and it does not seem to be causing any pain. It is on the inside of her right front leg, right at the wrist. It's about the size of a pea and is pretty firm. As you can see in the pictures it is pretty red in color but when you touch it, it turns white in color (like your skin does). She gets checked for lumps, bumps and what nots on a regular basis. Our best guess is this has popped up in the last 48 hours or less. Anyone have any ideas?

[everydog]

Lumps and bumps are difficult enought for vets to diagnose in person so I hesitate to guess from a photo, but if she's a youngster it could be a histiocytoma (benign). Always a good idea to have a vet take a look at it.

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_histiocytoma.html

[TimC.]

More than likely it is a benign tumor, its common name is a button tumor. Oona had one on her foreleg when she was two. We had it removed and tested just to be on the safe side (and for my piece of mind). After about three weeks you couldn't even tell it was there.
Olie

[maggieandfinn]

Thank you both very much. Maggie is amost 9 months old and I will calling the vet first thing in the morning.

[maggieandfinn]

update at top

[lab13]

Best of luck to Maggie tomorrow with the operation. Let us know how things go.

[Canyon Labradors]

Interesting your vet wants to remove it. Are you SURE you want to do that?

Maddy had a much larger hysticytoma on her foot between her toes. The vet said give it a few weeks, if it doesn't go away on it's own, we'll remove it. 2 weeks later it was GONE.

[maggieandfinn]

Interesting your vet wants to remove it. Are you SURE you want to do that?

Maddy had a much larger hysticytoma on her foot between her toes. The vet said give it a few weeks, if it doesn't go away on it's own, we'll remove it. 2 weeks later it was GONE.

We did remove it for a couple of reasons. One was the location. It was at her wrist and we were concerned how she would handle it if it got bigger. Also she had begun licking and biting at it causing it to bleed. Yes we could have bandaged it and done an e-collar. Another reason is that Maggie is a rescue. We don't know any history on her and this being out first dog we were very concerned. After the vet told us there was a chance (small but still a chance) that it could be a mass cell tumor our decision was made. If we were to wait and see if it went away and it didn't it may have been too late since our vet told us it could take up to 3 months for it to go away on its own. I also didn't think it was fair to Maggie to be bandaged with an e collar for almost three months if we had another option.

This was not a cheap procedure so we did not look for an out or anything like that. Maggie is a very active 9 month old and we had to do what we thought was best and would hopefully give her a full and quick recovery.

Maggie is home and doing well. We should have the results back on Monday or Tuesday. Thanks again to everyone.

[Canyon Labradors]

Well based on the possibility of the mast cell tumor, I probably would have done the same thing. Bad baby for licking it and making it bleed though.

Here are well wishes to a speedy recovery.

[maggieandfinn]

Thank you for the well wishes