Our senior dog (12 year old Airedale mix, 70 lbs) had a large lipoma removed 18 months ago. My previous vet believed in not messing with lipomas on old dogs unless they were causing problems. This tumor was the size of my fist, on his ribcage and starting to grow forward behind the elbow joint, so it had to come off. It healed fine, but it was a big incision and for over a week I was battling fluid accumulation and seroma formation, wrapping dog in elastic bandages etc. Dog seemed quite unperturbed but it wore me out! Now he has two more lipomas, including another one growing in the identical position on the opposite side, and I have a new vet (old vet moved to new practice too far away) who I like but who has a different perspective on lipomas. He is into proactively taking them off when they get to be three fingers width, as he maintains this is much less invasive surgically than letting them get big.

I can see the logic of both old vet's and new vet's opinions, so am trying to decide which way to go. Any thoughts out there from anyone else who has dealt with this? BTW senior dog is still active and in good shape for an old guy - heart, lungs, recent blood work all fine.

These are good, evenhanded overviews, IMO:

http://vetmedicine.about.com/cs/dogdiseasesl/a/lipomas.htm

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Dogs-701/K9-Lipoma.htm

http://www.thepetcenter.com/exa/lumps.html

http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/dlipoma.html

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1592&articleid=455


Is he a good candidate for anesthesia? (Sounds like "yes," from the workup you mentioned. Good for you, and for him!)

Have you thought about a second opinion?

Thanks, Connie! I should have known you would have something useful in your vast web library....though half of these articles suggest proactive removal and the other half propose the "watch and wait" approach. Hah! At least I feel less stupid now for being indecisive.
New vet and I agree that senior dog is still a good candidate for surgery, so that's not the issue. Maybe I'll flip a coin.

Sarah

Well, is it in an awkward place for the dog? Does it prevent comfortably lying down, etc.? Will it, if larger?

Hi Connie,
None of senior dog's lipomas are large enough to cause discomfort at present. The one that is a mirror image (on the other side) of the one removed previously could grow forward the same way and affect the elbow joint. Or it might do nothing more for the rest of his life - sometimes they grow and sometimes they don't! Maybe the conservative approach would be to measure them for a while to figure out which ones (if any) are growing, and then target those for pre-emptive removal. Even though the old boy is generally healthy, I don't want to put him through unnecessary surgery. Plus he is a shaggy mutt (those Airedale genes!) so the lipomas don't look as ugly as on a smooth-coated dog.

I have an eight year old English Springer Spaniel (read: lipoma heaven, I don't think any breed gets lipomas like ESS) and I did have one lipoma removed, the first one that cropped up, around age 4. This one was a little worrisome as it was -under- a layer of muscle, making it hard, so the vet wanted to remove it as usually lipomas are soft and squishy. (She didn't realize it was under the muscle before she operated.) It was in a non-invasive spot, just hanging out on her ribcage. Surgery and all went well, but it was pretty expensive ($600 for the whole deal, maybe?). I would not consider having any more taken off except for one near her armpit. It doesn't interfere with her motion, but it will if it grows any more. It is her largest, about the size of a lime. It cropped up really fast and once it hit this size, it ceased growing. If I thought it would grow any more, and thus interfere with her motion, I'd have it removed, but it seems to have stopped a long time ago. I have had two vets check it, neither is concerned. (And my dog chiro agrees that it doesn't affect her motion in the slightest.)

If it is in a spot where it could affect motion, and it is still growing, I'd get it removed. Most of Tessie's quickly reached a 'terminal size' that was quite small -- cotton ball size -- so as soon as I found it, it never got any bigger.

 Quote: Sarah Ward

Maybe the conservative approach would be to measure them for a while to figure out which ones (if any) are growing, and then target those for pre-emptive removal.

That sounds like something to discuss with the vet. Good idea!