Lump on stomach of 10 year old dog.

Has anybody ever seen anything like this? What do you think this could be on my senior dog? She’s a 10 year old spayed female German Shepherd/Husky mix. I’ve had my vet look at it but he seemed to have no idea and wanted to do a biopsy…. I’m hesitant to put her through a procedure like that at her advanced age. Is this something that anyone has seen before? She’s a happy, healthy dog otherwise, and it just feels like loose skin or something. It doesn’t seem to be painful to touch, and sometimes it will shrink or become larger, but then deflate again within hours to a couple of days… Thank you for any help or advice.

Hello! I'm very pleased that your vet said that they didn't know and wanted to do a biopsy.  This is not because your vet is clueless, but because they understand that one cannot diagnose a lump by looking at it (although some lumps are still regarded as more guessable than others) and so a biopsy is advised.  I trust that this isn't likely to be an umbilical hernia, in which the plan would be different (the picture is blurry - I can't see it very well - and in any case wouldn't try to diagnose another vets patient) but if your vet is offering biopsies then it sounds as though they have already ruled that out. In general, there are three ways of diagnosing skin lumps.  One can take the whole thing away, which undoubtedly requires an anaesthetic and reasonable margins (that means, a certain distance of 'normal' skin removed around the outside of the lump in order to ensure that if it is cancerous, there is a fair chance of taking the whole thing).   Alternatively, one can biopsy the lump - again requires anaesthetic and then removing a wedge of the lump to see what it is.  A good representative sample is often obtained this way.  However an anaesthetic is still needed. Or, you can stick a needle into the lump and steal a few cells.  The advantage of this is that it can be done with the pet awake, but the problem is, that no lump has the same cells in it all the way through, so the cells they happen to pull out through the needle might be benign, yet part of the lump may still be cancerous.  The smaller the sample (in this case, just a few cells), the higher the chance of getting a misleading result. It sounds as though your vet feels that, in balance, the first or middle choice is the best for this lump in this dog.  I expect that they know what they are doing. No-one can completely eliminate the risk of an anaesthetic; the question is whether this is greater or smaller than the risk of leaving the lump where it is.  I suspect that they think that the anaesthetic is a much smaller risk, to have proposed the procedure. Best of luck, whatever you decide.

(Obviously, please check my assumptions with your vet - I cannot speak for them!)

Questions I might ask if my dog was in this sort of situation, might include: How do the risks of a general anaesthetic compare to the risks of leaving the lump alone?   And What would happen if the sample came back as positive (cancerous)?  Also (and this is important - many owners feel they can't talk about it, but we should): What is the financial cost involved? Best of luck