Why does my female Toy Poodle have a knot in the
middle of her stomach? She also has a small one close to
one of her nipples. She is 7 1/2 years old. I’m getting ready to
have her spayed.
Kym
Caldwell, Ohio
The knot in the middle of the stomach sounds suspiciously like the infamous canine umbilicus, or belly button. I discussed canine and feline belly buttons in a recent post.
However, the mass adjacent to the nipple is more troubling. It may a mammary tumor. Malignant mammary tumors are known as breast cancer.
Female dogs and cats have very low rates of breast cancer if they are spayed before their first heat cycle. However, older, unspayed females develop mammary tumors at relatively high rates.
Most mammary tumors in cats are malignant. In dogs, many mammary tumors are less aggressive. But no matter what, the mass needs to be checked by your vet.
You say that your pet will be going to the vet to be spayed soon. The veterinarian should assess both areas before surgery. He or she will probably want to remove any suspicious masses at the time of the spay surgery. If a mass is removed, a laboratory pathologist will be able to analyze it to determine if it’s dangerous.
See related Vet Blog entries:
A client brought her dog to see me last week. She was worried about a mass that was present on his abdomen. I performed a general physical exam to rule out enlarged lymph nodes and other evidence of medical problems. Then I began to search for the mass.
But I couldn’t find it. After a few minutes of feeling around the dog’s abdomen, I asked the client to point out the mass. She directed me to his belly button which, thankfully, was normal.
My client was a bit surprised (and also slightly embarrassed) when I told her that the area of concern appeared to be a perfectly normal umbilicus (also known as belly button). But in my opinion she had no reason to be embarrassed.
First, many people don’t realize that dogs and cats, like all mammals, have belly buttons. Most canine and feline belly buttons look different from ours. They appear as small scars located in the middle of the abdomen midway between the ribcage and the pelvis (hips). If you press on your pet’s umbilicus, you may feel some firm tissue underneath it.
Second, in my opinion nobody should be ashamed of taking a healthy pet to the vet. As a vet, I would much rather discover a healthy belly button than learn that the client had spent months ignoring a malignant tumor.
I explained these points to the client. I hope that by the time she left she felt much more relieved than embarrassed.
Photo info: Newborn Golden Retrievers, with umbilical cords tied off. The site where the umbilical cord meets the body becomes the umbilicus. Photo credit: Gonzalo García Jaubert. Photo licensing information: CC.
See related Vet Blog entries:
Why does my female Toy Poodle have a knot in the
You have questions. 