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Lipoma and Sebaceous cysts
Infiltrative lipomas in German Shepherd
Lipomas
Sebaceous cysts and lipomas
Lipomas
Fatty tumors
also see Cancer and tumors
also see dog lumps
Infiltrative lipomas in German Shepherd
Question: Please I could use some input. I have a five year old female GSP. She had
hernia surgery a year and a half ago. In about seven months the bulge came
back. Our vet had said at the time of her surgery that it was a very fatty
mass and it was very difficult to repair. Since the time of her surgery we
watch and took x-rays which gave us no reason it would be anything else but
the return of the hernia. On 12/06 she under went surgery again because we
felt the bulge was getting bigger and we did not want any complications.
The treatment confirmed what this new surgeon had said in an examination of
Bonnie before the surgery. An infiltrative mass. The mass originated in
the inguinal region and extended cranial between the muscle bellies of the body
wall to the rib cage. It also extended medial to midline and lateral
midway to spine. The mass was resected along with a portion of the body wall.
there is residual tumor remaining. He also goes on to say that we feel this
is an infiltrative lipoma and will require ancillary radiation therapy to prevent
recurrence and treat residual disease. My questions to you is please what
would your recommendation be? I can't seen to find to much information of
this lipoma and we want to give her the best possible care so we can all
enjoy each other for the years to come.Thank you, Sherry
By the way the pathologist report agreed with the diagnosis of the
surgeon. Did say prognosis is favorable.
Answer: Sherry-
Infiltrative lipomas can be a difficult problem. In follow-up studies of
dogs that have these tumors surgically removed but no other treatment
(JAVMA July 15, 1994) the median time until recurrence of the tumors was
239 days. Radiation therapy appears to extend this interval significantly,
but this is based on anecdotal reports only. I couldn't find a study that
supported this claim. We have had one patient with this condition who we
did surgery on three times before the clients finally agreed to radiation
therapy, which worked to prevent future recurrences entirely, as far as we
could tell. The dog lived at least eight years after the last surgery and
radiation therapy.Good luck with this.
Mike Richards, DVM
1/3/2001
Question: Hello, Dr. Mike,
We have a 12 year old German Shorthair who has
numerous lipomas. As they appear, we have them needle
biopsied by our vet and all have been benign.
Currently, he has a fist-sized (and growing) lipoma on
his neck/chest area, just below his collar, and
another not quite so large at the juncture of his rear
leg and flank. Neither are impeding his mobility at
this time, but if they get larger, they might.He has had large lipomas surgically removed in the
past, but given his age and the fact that these 2 are
where skin constantly moves when he walks, our vet
doesn't want to remove them unless it really becomes a
problem.Our vet says he recently heard of a treatment that
involves injecting saline into the lipomas and thus
causing them to shrink without surgery, but he can't
remember where and hasn't been able to find more info.
I've also searched the Web with no luck. I wondered
if this was something that you either have heard of or
might know where we could find information about.Thanks for any help. Your web site has been very
useful to us in the past, but this is the first
question I've had for you.Grace
Answer: Grace-
I hate to disappoint you on your first question, but I can't find any
references to treating lipomas with saline.I can find articles on treating mast cell tumors with deionized water,
though. This treatment was reported in the July 1990 issue of the Journal
of Veterinary Research and it was used as an adjunct treatment to surgical
removal of the tumors. It reported that dogs having both surgery and
deionized water injections did better than dogs with surgery alone. I am
not sure if this is what your vet is thinking of but it was all I could
find. Since this is the only article I can find on this therapy, I am
assuming that follow-up studies have not been successful in supporting this
treatment but that may not be true.Mike Richards, DVM
4/15/2000
Question: Champ is will be 12 in June He is a black Lab and not nuetered. He
weighs in at 107 lbs.He has always had enlarged nipples and sometime they have gotten crusty
but no real problems.About 3 months ago a lump, about the size of a quarter appeared. You
could feel all around it and the vet send it was a fatty cyst and not to
worry unless it changes.I checked a week ago today , with no change. On the following Monday 2
days later it had grown to an oval shaped about 3-4inches long and maybe
2-3 inches across and firm.On Tuesday we took him to a new vet (we have relocated) he did a tab and
said it was mostly fat cells and some bacteria cells. He said probably a
sebaecious cyst.He put him on antibiotics, CEPHALEXIN, 3000mg a day. I was also to soak
in twice a day with warm water. He said if it did not go down surgery
should be done.He has been on the antibiotics for four full days now with no
significant change. There had been some fluid that formed in from of and
behind the lump but has since been absorbed , at least most of it has.Do you feel surgery is necessary at this point, if not how long should I
give the lump to go down, if it even will? Is one week of antibiotics
enough? I really would like to avoid surgery if possible.I also give Champ 1000mg of Vit.C and 800 iu of Vit E and 740mg of
Shark Cartilage. He has been on this Vit. plan for about 1 year.He is eating well and playing and acting fine in every other way. We do
live on a mini farm and he is always rolling in the dirt and horse
manure. (could this have caused the infection)?Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you also
for helping with the E=mail problem. I did use the reply.I also have a Dob/Shep with a similar lump on her belly (shes 11) but
it has been there for 3 yr. also a fatty lump , and you can fell around
it. What causes them?Thank You
Linda
Answer: Linda-
I usually do not surgically remove either lipomas (the fatty cell tumor
your first vet suspected) or sebaceous cysts. However, under some
circumstances we do recommend removal of these lumps.We remove lipomas when they occur in a place that they cause irritation,
such as in an "armpit" or on the sternum right where the pressure point is
when a dog is laying down. Sometimes these will make a nipple sensitive and
they have to be removed to get the dog to stop bothering the nipple.I used to remove a lot of sebaceous cysts, trying to avoid letting them
rupture. Over the years I noticed that when clients refused to have these
removed most of them didn't rupture and some of them resolved without
treatment. So now I just wait to see if they are going to rupture and
remove them only if that happens, or if they occur in an irritating spot
similar to the ones described for the lipomas.We see an occasional patient who has a persistently irritated or infected
nipple and we do sometimes have to remove these to resolve the problem.
That doesn't really sound like what is occurring with Champ, though.The other concern here is whether or not this is really just a lipoma or
sebaceous cyst. It isn't really possible to be absolutely certain without
removing the lump. I am pretty comfortable if I get a couple of consistent
smears from aspiration that are supportive of a diagnosis of either lipoma
or sebaceous cysts. The problem here is that you have gotten conflicting
reports and that is a little bit worrisome. I think I'd probably want to do
another aspiration from the lump to recheck the previous findings in this
instance. The description makes a lipoma seem more likely.If there is still any doubt about the lump's nature after the third fine
needle aspirate, sending the smear from aspirate to a pathologist for
review would be a good idea.If it does finally seem important to remove this lump, it is often possible
to do this with a sedative and local anesthetic in an older patient. We do
this pretty frequently and have been able to remove even fairly large skin
lumps without using general anesthetic.I don't know what causes lipomas to form but Labradors and dobermans both
seem to get a lot them, based on our patients.Mike Richards, DVM
3/12/2000
Q: Hi: I have an 8 year old Black Lab that started getting lumps all over it's body. Most are very close to the skin surface and feel very loose. However, some recently occurring lumps seem to be less loose. The vet took a small biopsy with a syringe about a year ago when they first started occurring and determined that it was all fat tissue. What are these lumps? Should I be worrying about them? Is this something more common in Labs than other breeds?
A: Dogs develop fatty tumors called lipomas. Lipomas are normally diagnosed with aspiration of the lump and this is pretty reliable. Most fatty cell tumors are not malignant but a very small percentage of them are either locally invasive or do have metastatic potential. A very small percentage. Due to this, the standard of care is usually to leave these lumps alone unless they are causing some sort of functional problem -- like growing in the "armpit" region and restricting motion of a leg.
I don't know if Labradors have a particular sensitivity to these tumors but they do get a lot of them. Most dogs with these tumors will have more than one.
Lipomas can be removed but the risk of anesthesia, even though it is small, outweighs the risk of leaving the tumor alone and most vets are reluctant to remove them do to this.
Hope that helps.
Mike Richards, DVM
Q: Over the last twenty years, we have had four lovable mutts and one persistent problem: three of them have had substantial numbers of "fatty tumors." Our vet has been unconcerned about these...and over the years we have never really had any reason to worry since the only problem has been one of cosmetics. Our lab, though, now has two that are about the size of tennis balls, and one is under her front leg...and we anticipate we'll probably need to have them removed. We undertook this course of action once in the past (with another dog), and I found it pretty worrisome trying to keep a big active dog restrained for three weeks while all the stitches healed. To make a long story short, that dog ended up pulling all the stitches out...and I was a basket case. So here's my question: Is there any minimally invasive technique for removing/shrinking these tumors? I wouldn't mind the extra cost if a vet-school or other professional could save my dog...and me...a lot of pain and (mental) anguish. Many thanks.
A: I have often wondered if some variation of liposuction would work for these tumors. We have a surgical suction machine and I have even been tempted to try it but I keep waiting for someone to write a study on it first. I also wonder if more specialized suction equipment may be necessary. Anyway, I know of no other technique for removing these tumors other than surgery at this time.
All dogs are different and it is highly likely that this dog will leave the stitches alone. Most dogs do. I sure hope the odds work out for you!
Mike Richards, DVM
Last edited 01/30/05
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