I immediately thought the worst. Dr B wasn't too worried but what would he know - he's only a cardiologist! Three days later and the soft lump on fur baby's chest had turned hard and a dark colour. I knew it would mean surgery. The vet made a differential diagnosis based on age of the dog (3yo), location of the lump, and when we first noticed it. She, like me, thought it could be a mast cell tumour, which is common in Boxers, or an atypical histiocytoma. We agreed that the best treatment would be a wide margin excision of the lump and send it for histological examination. I signed the consent form, wondering what she would find.
Zozi recovered well from the anaesthetic but wasn't too happy about having to wear a T-shirt over her wound dressing. She kept it on overnight then the shirt and the dressing came off and who were we to argue with her?
One week on and the wound is healing fine, although there was rather a large exudate (oozing from the wound) yesterday which took a long time to clean up. She was rather upset by it and took to her bed for the rest of the afternoon, but is quite perky today.
We have just found out that the lump was a histiocytoma, a benign skin tumour made up of immune cells (nasty thing) and that no further treatment is required.
Dr B is taking the stitches out tomorrow and I do hope that there won't be a terrible scar. She is such a pretty dog, and especially precious because of her heart condition. I have been giving her extra cuddles this week.
We are very grateful to the lovely Jane Anderton and all the staff at Rivendell Vets in Farncombe for the care and attention in looking after Zozi, and we are so relieved that the lump wasn't anything sinister.