I will obviously ask my vet as well, but wanted to hear CDers views on this subject.

My spayed Malinois bitch Rio is 8 years and 7 months old, and in excellent condition. (This being a breed that doesn't really start to age until 12, so she is still young.) In January of this year I discovered she had one mammary tumour. It is roughly the size of a grape. It has NOT grown at all since then.

Initially I was waiting to see if the lump would grow, and did not see the vet until Rio's booster was due in August. By then I knew it had not grown. I asked the vet his opinion, he said let's remove it -and I asked if we could wait until the end of the year for various reasons. He said that unless it started to grow suddenly, that was absolutely fine.

It still hasn't grown but now I am starting to wonder if removing it at all is the right thing to do. When I worked as a vet nurse way back in the stone age at home in Sweden, my vet always used to say that unless a mammary tumour was causing a problem or growing fast, it was better left alone as once you start messing about with removing it, chances are it spreads and comes back worse. This is my worry. Rio's mum Ripley had one mammary tumour at the same age and it was removed straight away. Aged 12 she developed many more, and they were removed -she had a full mammary strip on one side, the odd one removed on the other side.  We deeply regretted having had that second surgery done as recovery was very hard for her and she was never quite the same again -it was like the surgery aged her overnight. There were a couple of lumps the vet could not remove at the same time as the others, and we opted to leave them as we would not put her through more surgery. Those lumps never grew and never bothered her and she lived another 19 months.

Thoughts? I don't want to go through the same with Rio, and if there is a risk of getting more tumours simply by removing the single one she has now, I'd rather leave things as they are. It's not growing, it isn't bothering her at all in any way.

What about needle aspiration to check if the tumour is benign, if benign leave well alone.

What about needle aspiration to check if the tumour is benign, if benign leave well alone.

Exactly what I'd do.   It's very difficult to say other than what I'd do, based on my individual bitch.   We had just the one case which started when she was 12.   Under the circumstances and after a long discussion with our vet (and no, I didn't have the FNA done -should have but it wasn't something I really knew about at the time) we decided not to operate or give any treatment but to keep her going for as long as it was apparent her down days started outnumbering her up days.  As it was, having kept her sister going for too long (which I freely admit was selfish, she was soooo special - she had cancer but another sort, probably stomach) I probably called it too early with the sister.   She was doing well basically but would spend more and more time sitting in her box looking at the wall at which point I knew she was feeling pain.   It was then I decided she'd had enough.   The sad thing was she ate up her breakfast the morning we took her in, and even worse, the vet had a hard job getting into her vein for the final injection.   I still weep to think about it.   However, clearly at 12+, she wasn't going to be around for much longer without the cancer.

If any of this 'helps'.

Thing with mammary tumours only less than half are malignant, so leaving them may have no consequence at all.

My last cat developed a mammary tumour at about 14 years old.    Having kept our Afghan X for far too long owing to not realising he was 'falling apart'  slowly,  we wanted her to have a  happy life and let her go if the tumour got too big or if she started going downhill.

The vet said it may just be a cyst.

She lived until 181/2 and the tumour did start getting bigger towards the end,  but at that point her organs had begun to shut down anyway.

With the bitch we lost last year,  aged 4, she had a mammary tumour start after her one mammary abcessed with mastitis (the teats that never worked)   it was an unusual one in that it was a hand-shaped lump.   Again,  the vet thought it could easily be a cyst,  but as it seemed to get a little bigger with her seasons,  we chose to have her neutered and remove it at the same time.   She never had another lump.

This year,  we had her daughter speyed and a mammary lump removed,  she is 10.   Again,  the lump had been getting a little bigger with each season,   so we felt it better to remove,  but wouldn't put her under just for that.

My youngest hasn't been bred,  and at 6, I feel is too old for a litter now.   So far no lumps.   

Thanks Brainless and MamaBas -I didn't know you COULD do a needle aspiration, it has never been mentioned. The tumours that her mum had were benign, so fingers crossed. I shall definitely bring this up with the vet!

Let me know what your vet says re FNA on a mammary tumour.  As I said, I didn't know, at the time, that this could be done, but I'd also have expected my then vet to have suggested this be done if it was relevant, except actually my bitch was pretty elderly and she probably felt it best to let it alone in any case (if it came back malignant).    She was going downhill at the time in any case, and over 12 which is over the normal age for Bassets (much as most of our's lived well into their teens).   Her tumour was leaking too.

Might not be very helpful but I've had 2 bitches with mammary tumours.
My first girl had a tumour about the size of a grape (maybe slightly smaller).  It was hard and it never frew any larger or spread.  We left it alone with the advise of vet/mentor friend and she lived till old age with it not bothering her in the slightest and died at 13 from an unrelated issue.
My next bitch was very similar.  Grew to about the size of a grape then stayed the same size for a couple of years then suddenly at her next groom (every 8 weeks or so) it was larger, noticable so and had kind of gnarly bits attached to the lump itself instead of being ball shaped.  We took her off to the vet who recommended a full mammary strip and spay at 9 years old which was done that week.  Unfortunately, the cancer spread quite quickly and we lost her 2 years later to cancer which had spread throughout her body(stomach, lungs).
I never got the option to 'test' the lump nor needle to see.  It was either leave it alone or the full monty.

Thanks cracar -two opposite ends of the scale for sure.

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Thanks cracar -two opposite ends of the scale for sure

That makes sense as it's roughly 50/50 benign or malignant.  So small lumps in younger dogs are best removed and tested.

In an older dog just test the cells at lab, and if benign no worries, if malignant then you can decide whether the age, health and likely rate of spread mean surgery or leave alone.

My 6 year old bitch had lots of little mammary tumours arrive almost overnight, they were all in the same area.  We had a needle biopsy done which said highly likely malignant so she went to have them removed, no strip but an area of around 6 inches was taken.  I was in bits having lost my 8 year old boy just 5 weeks earlier.  Anyhow, the results from the biopsy came back as benign, I was over the moon as you can imagine.  My vet had warned me that needle biopsy results can be notoriously inaccurate and luckily for me this time they were.  I have since had my girl speyed and am obsessed about checking her. 

It's times like this that we all wish we had a crystal ball eh?

my vet always used to say that unless a mammary tumour was causing a problem or growing fast, it was better left alone as once you start messing about with removing it, chances are it spreads and comes back worse.
I agree with this 100%!  My experience is not just the relatively few dogs that I've owned, but as a veterinary nurse in my younger years, and latterly a dog groomer with almost 300 dogs on my books at any given time.

My daughter's dog had a similar lump at a similar age.  My recommendation was to leave it, which she did.  The bitch lead a very happy, active and healthy life until at the age of almost 15 years, she went down hill very fast and had what they think was a stroke.  The mammary tumour over those years had grown from a grape to a small plum.  On her final visit to the vet, only the second in her life I believe, he palpated a large tumour on her liver and she was given sleep.
Pain free and comfortable is always my mantra for my dogs.  :) 

Thanks West Coast!

I had one borzoi bitch who had a full mammary strip, and I promised her that I would never put another bitch through that, it was a horrible operation and really she'd only got fully back to fitness 6 months later and a month or too after that we discovered she had tumours all over her chest cavity too. I then adopted an elderly lurcher who had several mammary tumours, I decided to just leave them and she lived another 2 years or so before having to be put to sleep at a good age. I know several other people who have the same philosophy and I know a couple of bitches like yours that are very fit and healthy and have some lumps that aren't bothering them at all.

Personally I would leave it be :)

Thanks chaumsong. It's reassuring to know it isn't only me who said never again to a mammary strip!

We haven't been back to the vet yet (simple case of other things being more important) so haven't asked about a needle aspiration but it is now 11 months since I first found this lump and it is still the same size.

My now 13 1/2 year old had a mammary tumour removed about 4 years ago now and was spayed at the same time.  Although I had no experience of a full mammary strip I was very reluctant for her to undergo such a  radical proceedure.  Thankfully my vet agreed and I have a very happy girl still here, even if she does do silly things now and again!

Can I just add to this post something that is now bothering me.  I didn't want to do anything with my bitch but my vet said that since he had diagnosed and recommended treatment, if I didn't put her through the mammary strip and spay, it was tantamount to cruelty and he could report me to SSPCA.  This is the only reason we did it.  I would have left it alone as it is pretty horrific to put an older dog through.

> didn't want to do anything with my bitch but my vet said that since he had diagnosed and recommended treatment, if I didn't put her through the mammary strip and spay, it was tantamount to cruelty and he could report me to SSPCA.

That sounds a lot like blackmail to me! Surely if the bitch is not suffering you have time to consider the best course of action. If you feel surgery is not in her best interests then why not just care until she does become ill and then PTS. I really dont see how they can force you to have surgey done!

I didn't want to do anything with my bitch but my vet said that since he had diagnosed and recommended treatment, if I didn't put her through the mammary strip and spay, it was tantamount to cruelty and he could report me to SSPCA. 

I hope you changed vets!!!!