I have a nine-year-old female Cockerpoo. The past
few years she has developed lumps on her abdomen
and chest. She seems to get more and more. My
vet says that these tend to develop on dogs as
they get older. She has never felt the need to
biopsy them. I am concerned about them. Daisy is
in good health otherwise and feeling fine. Could
you please ease my mind? Thanks so much.

Cathy
Arnold, CA

I suspect that Daisy’s lumps are benign (harmless) masses called lipomas (link is an article covering lipomas in humans, which are similar clinically).

Lipomas are extremely common in older dogs of all breeds. They are soft, well-defined masses the develop under the skin. They are made of adipose tissue (fat). Dogs do not have to be overweight to develop lipomas.

Lipomas are also called fatty tumors. I do not use this phrase often. It contains the T-word, which is frightening. Lipomas generally are harmless.

To confirm that Daisy’s masses are, in fact, lipomas, I recommend a procedure called fine needle aspiration. To perform this procedure, a small needle is inserted into each lump. This allows a small amount of each mass to be harvested for analysis. The procedure generally can be performed without sedation or anesthesia. Fine needle aspiration should be performed on all of the masses if possible.

If the masses are confirmed as lipomas, then you have little to worry about. The lumps should be monitored to make sure that they are not growing or changing rapidly. However, the overwhelming majority of lipomas never compromise longevity or quality of life.

I generally do not recommend removal of lipomas unless they are growing rapidly or interfering with basic activities (for instance, extremely large lipomas in the arm pit can interfere with walking). Keeping Daisy svelte may help to control the size of her lipomas, but this is not guaranteed.

There is a high likelihood that Daisy will develop more masses in the future. I recommend that your vet sample all of them. If they all turn out to be lipomas, then you can sleep easy.

Photo: Firefly has no reported lipomas.

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My parent’s Boston Terrier Rocky has started
developing small bumps under his skin, which do
not seem to irritate him, but are not going away.
They are very concerned because they are afraid he
may have cancer. Our Doberman got skin bumps
right before he got cancer and died quickly. They
took him to the vet today and biopsies were taken.
The vet said she’ll have answers in about 2 weeks.
Could there be a skin condition causing this other
than cancer? Rocky is eight years old, and by all
other measures a healthy dog. He gets well
exercised also. Dad walks him often, and he is
well taken care of. Thank you for your time.

Nancy
West Paterson, NJ

There are many conditions other than cancer that can cause bumps under the skin in eight-year-old dogs. In fact, cancer is one of the less common causes of skin bumps in dogs like Rocky.

Two of the most common causes of masses under or on the skin are completely benign. Lipomas are soft masses that form under the skin. They are extremely common in dogs older than six years. They are harmless deposits of adipose (fat) tissue that can occur anywhere on the body, but they are especially prevalent on the trunk.

Sebaceous adenomas are wart-like masses that grow out of the skin in many middle aged and older dogs. They are unsightly but are generally harmless.

Both lipomas and sebaceous adenomas are technically tumors. But they are not cancer. The two types of masses are benign and rarely harm pets.

There are literally dozens of other types of masses that can develop on or under the skin of dogs. Although there are exceptions, most are benign.

To know whether a skin mass is dangerous it must be tested. The results that you will receive in two weeks will hopefully lay the matter to rest. But in the meantime, please don’t lose too much sleep worrying about the bumps. They most likely are not cancer.

About the photo: Arrow looks like she is healing well after having a hopefully benign tumor removed.

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