By Heidi Clayton
Discovering a lump or bump on your dog is most of the time no cause for panic. Over the course of my 13-year-old girl IchiBan’s life, she has developed several lipomas, which are commonly known as fatty tumors. She started to grow fatty tumors at about 10 years of age. At that time, I would normally have the lump aspirated to check for the presence of cancer. While the lumps can get rather large, they have never been cancerous. I rarely, if ever, worry about lipomas. The lump or bump that I did take very seriously was the mast cell tumor that developed on her chest area when she was 9 years old.
Mast cell tumors are the most common skin cancer that occurs in dogs. They can appear on any part of the body and can happen to any breed or mix of dog. Penn Vet reports that the tumor is typically a response to allergens or inflammation in the dog’s body and appears as a swollen red bump raised from the skin.
IchiBan’s was a dime-sized red lump that looked very raw. It also seemed to appear almost overnight. My first stop was to take her to her regular vet, who diagnosed it as a mast cell tumor.
While 95 percent of all mast cell tumors can be successfully treated without actual cancer treatment, these tumors should be dealt with immediately to prevent spreading. I chose Mt. Laurel Animal Hospital where we saw an oncologist who explained that removing the mast cell tumor was key but not to be alarmed by the actual size of the surgical site. The key to removing a mast cell tumor is the margins that are taken from around the actual tumor. So while IchiBan’s tumor was small, the actual wound from surgery was huge. Once removed, the tumor was sent for a biopsy and grading. Mast cell tumors are graded from one to three. Most ones require no further treatment while twos and threes most likely will need some sort of treatment varying from steroids to chemo or radiation therapy. I was relieved that IchiBan’s mast cell tumor was graded as a one, and no further treatment was needed. The key to mast cell tumors is to intervene before they have a chance to spread to lymph nodes.
There is also a nonsurgical option in the form of an injection that goes by the brand name “Stelfonta.” The Stelfonta injections do have several benefits such as it is less expensive than surgery and can be helpful when the tumor itself is located in a difficult location on the body where wide margins are not possible. The medication is injected directly into the tumor which should start to shrink. The injections do leave a wound in the form of a hole in the skin as the tumor itself shrinks. The downside to choosing this treatment option is that you do not get to send the actual tumor and skin for a biopsy so that the level of the mast cell can be graded. Stelfonta has an 85 percent success rate, which is very palatable to most owners.
Regardless of your choice of treatment, the best way to beat a mast cell tumor is to get a quick diagnosis. Don’t delay if you think the lump or bump on your dog is a mast cell tumor.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at heidi@fouronthefloordogtraining.net.
Heidi Clayton started Four On the Floor Dog Training to provide positive, reward-based dog training in South Jersey. She breeds, trains and shows bull terriers under the SoraBully’s Bull Terriers kennel name. Email questions to heidi@fouronthefloordogtraining.net or learn more at https://fouronthefloordogtraining.net
