Question:
My 9 year old Lab mix has cronic fat lumps under his skin. For the most part they are small, about 1 inch squared, and the dog is not aware or bothered by them. The vet said I can leave the small ones as he is unaware of them and they are causing no harm. Recently he has had to have operations to remove large ones, about the size of my hand, from his ribs, sternum, and underarm, they were fast growing and got to be the size of my hand in the couple months of monitoring prior to removal. They are costly to me and I end up going to vet every month to get new ones checked to ensure they are not serious, none have come back as cancer. My question is ; Why does he get these lumps, and so many? I have yet to find a cause or reason why he gets them. He has great eating habbits, exercise (off leash daily), and is always happy and high energy. Its to the point where my vet no longer feels I need to check every new lump, as he has had so many checked and now the dog does not like my vet and barks everytime I pull into their driveway. Is it just him or is there a cause for these fatty tissue lumps?

Answer:
My cousins dog has the same thing although hers don't get removed. We just leave em alone. Shes aout 9 years old, dobermin mix. Shes properly taken care of and has a yard to run around in. She is overweight though and her fat bumps are pretty big and noticable.

I'd say, they just happen.

I'm not sure what else to say, but I think some dogs just get them.

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Is your dog overweight? My old lab got fatty tumors too, but they were the result of fat pushing out from between the muscles (hence the lump).

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I doubt this is related or helpful, but my 5year old cat has lumps too, 2 about at 1"diameter - vet has said to make sure they don't grow, and that they are from past injection sites... (which doesn't sound very nice but the seem to be harmless).

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http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/petcolumns/s...icle.cfm?id=34

what they are (lipomas), what to do about them (or not)...

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Me again, thanks for info everyone... No my dog is not overweight, he does gain about 3 pounds in the winter and sheds it in the summer because he can swim more when there is no ice lol. He is a full grown lab/husky mix so he is just under 70 pounds. I don't really worry about the small ones I can see, they still all get biopsied just to make sure, but it's the larger ones that worry me. The vet operated to remove one and found 2 more hidden under bones and muscle, they were very large. So far they are all fat, but just wanted to know if there is a real cause out there. The more I look into it the more I find it "just happens", which is what my vet said. Thanks again everyone!

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Thanks for the informative link technodoll...

Adogsday, glad you're less worried about the cause of your pup's lumps - here's hoping they will always all be just a little extra fat! (Wish I could get mine removed in spot treatments like that, haha.)

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My old dog had the lumps that you were describing and I have seen them on many older dogs. They are generally benign tumours that just result from aging. Your dog will rarely be affected by them and the owners are more perturbed than anyone. The exact cause is not known but it is important that your vet do a biopsy on the tumours to make sure they are not malignant. Generally vets suggest that you just leave them in there until they become a problem for the dog, such as walking if one is by its leg.

Hope this info helps and I know it is very disconcerting to see something that shouldn't be there. Everything gets old and a little worn down.

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My old dog had fatty lumps all over her stomach and sides as she got older. They didn't bother her, and they were tested benign. The vet said as long as they weren't growing too large to just leave them alone. She eventually was euthanized at 14 because of a brain tumor, but I don't think that was related to her fatty tumors at all.

The poor dog though, no one liked to pat her cuz she was all lumpy!

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I myself had a lipoma and was quite young at the time, I don't believe weight or age has much to do with it since I was also quite thin. In humans one of the symptoms of Hyperparathyroidism can be lipomas. I kept running into that when I was googling my symptoms but I'm not sure how that might work in a dog or if it is the same thing or not.

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