Jet had a small lump on the point of her left shoulder.  Drew Vet's atttention to it, she aspirated a small sample, says it is a cyst, benign, watch for signs of growth.  One week later it was twice as big, Vet examined, said it might burst and get infected or grow into surrounding tissue and interfere with movement and the fact that it grew so quickly after fine needle aspiration was also worrisome.  Vet said can usually aspirate to draw out liquid and material under sedative.  Jet is 14 so do not want to use general anesthetic.  Pre-decided if Jet struggled and threatened to twist her very bad back we would not do anything.  Sedative did not make Jet sleepy at all so they did not remove the cyst.  Now it is bigger, about a one/half to three/quarter cubic inch, as a rough indicator of size.

Has anyone had such a situation?  What did you do?  Any suggestions?

If the vet is convinced that it's a cyst why not bath it with some hot as is comfortable water? It may then burst and release the muck then you can keep it clean and treat with Antibiotics if needed to deal with the chance of infection. Just make sure it is a harmless cyst though. You would not want to miss the possibility of it being a cancer of some sort??

These kinds of cysts can be removed under local anaesthetic without even any need to shave, but most vets are use to the scalpel method.

the technique is to make an opening in the cyst, draw out the exudate and then pull out the lining of the cyst through the hole, trim it away and put in a stitch or use skin glue.

Try googling for 'Non surgical removal of sebaceous cysts'

I have given these details to several Friends within my breed whose vets have successfully used this method, it has avoided GA and in the case of show dogs loosing a whole season of shows due to shaving.

One of mine had this method used, but she was having a GA for something else.

Yes, I wondered about a warm compress too, may try that. 

Brainless, that is exactly what was scheduled.  They needed Jet to lie down to give them access to the cyst but the sedative did not make her dopey enough and she would not.  And she was too fidgety otherwise.  She cannot be man-handled (not that they would anyway) because of possible strain to her back.