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September 21, 2011

If you missed our Champion of My Heart notes via Twitter and Facebook last Friday, let’s catch up. Our veterinarian is doing surgery today to remove a small, hard lump from Lilly’s neck. It might be a mast cell tumor (cancer).

Based on research that I did in 2008 for a cancer article in Rocky Mountain Dog magazine, I know that mast cell tumors are #3 in the top five most common cancers dogs get.

Facing what might be the next in a long series of worries stretching back more than two years, I’m both realistic and hopeful. Lilly is a healthy, strong girl.

This lump already IS or ISN’T whatever it is. We’ll just deal with what comes next. So, we ask simply for the strength and peace required.

best dog blog, champion of my heart, 2010, Lilly Hawn

I found the small lump in the spring. At first, I thought perhaps:

  • Lilly had a bug bite.
  • I’d scratched her during grooming.
  • Ginko had pinched her with his teeth.

I kept and eye on it, feeling the spot every few days, trying to get a sense of it. I had a plan. Get it checked out at Lilly’s scheduled wellness exam in May, but then … I found this massive spider bite, then she got tapeworms, then my mom landed in the cardiac ICU … and the little lump? Back-burnered.

I eked out time last Friday (9/16), and Lilly had a complete “senior” dog exam. It was her first pull-out-all-stops exam, now that she’s 7 years old.

I showed the lump to our veterinarian, and she agreed with me that it was of concern for a few reasons:

  • It was hard, not squishy like those fatty tumors common on older dogs.
  • It wasn’t pointy enough on the outside, the way most cysts are.
  • It wasn’t round on all sides, instead feeling like it had a flat (and spreading base) or “feet” underneath it.
  • It’s close to lymph nodes in her neck.

It has to come out. So, we’ll see.

Please note, however, that the excellent handout from the cancer center at Colorado State University says: “Mast Cell Tumors can look and feel like anything, so it’s impossible to know if a skin mass is a MCT without looking at cells under a microscope.”

So, while this lump seems suspicious for the reasons noted above, it simply has to come out to know anything.

We found out over the weekend that Lilly’s blood work was perfect and that they found just a trace of blood in her urine. Otherwise, that too looked great.

The plan is to use local numbing agents and IV sedatives, rather than general anesthesia, but we did not feed Lilly breakfast this morning … just in case they need to put her under. We’ll wait 3-4 days for pathology results to come back.

Things will remain “normal” here, as normal as my weird life is these days, until we know more.

Thanks, everyone, for your love, support, and concern.

About the Author Roxanne Hawn

Trained as a traditional journalist and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA, I'm a full-time freelance writer for magazines, websites, and private clients. My areas of specialty include everything in the lifestyles arena, including health and home, personal finance and other consumer interests, relationships and trends, people and business profiles ... and, of course, all things pet related.

I don't just love dogs. I need them in my life. Seriously.

  1. Thinking of you guys! Read your FB updates and had to chuckle about Lilly being such a Rock Star as my Kona is such the opposite. She had to be put on IV sedatives and then some to remove a foxtail from her ear. The normal shot just didn’t cut it.

    Paws crossed as you await test results.

  2. Oh dear. You have way too much going on. Betsy and Norman are keeping their paws crossed for good news.

  3. I hate lumps too! Fortunately, not all lumps are cancer, so fingers crossed.

    When the vet found a huge solid mass in Jasmine’s abdomen we too were warned that it might be cancer. Waiting for blood results, exploratory surgery and then again waiting for biopsy results sucked. Turned out being form of IBD with specific type of white cells building up in stomach and intestine tissue. Still not great but huge relief.

    (((hugs))) to Lilly

  4. I read on FB that Lilly is out of surgery and did/is doing amazing! Thinking bestest ever paws-up thoughts!

  5. I have been thinking of you and Lilly since early this morning and I am sending my most positive thoughts your way. Take care of yourselves.

    PS. There is a dog we do agility with who looks very much like your sweet girl. So much that I almost called her Lilly this past weekend!

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