# Malignant cancer and lipomas. Help?



## Katie J Cross (Apr 27, 2018)

Hey all! 

Can you give me feedback if you've seen this before? Or anything like it? 

First of all—I have an appointment with my vet tomorrow morning.

My 6.5 year old V Ryker has been acting a bit strange. 2 months ago, we had 5 brown lumps removed, and one attempted to burn off on his eyelid (near his tear duct) while it was still small. 1 of the 4 tested lumps came back malignant. They got clean margins. The one on the eyelid has grown. 

We haven't changed his diet, but have been exercising a lot more in the warm weather, and he's definitely bigger. In fact, we can't fasten his collar around his neck on the same notch as before. He eats kibble in the morning and raw at night—if he'll eat it. He's picky. He looks really bloated. I haven't weighed him so I don't know if he's gained. I would be SHOCKED if not. My neighbor and husband agreed.

Eating, pooping, and playing fine.

He has two benign fatty lipomas, one on his right ribcage and one on his sternum, that we've tested and measured. The vet isn't concerned about these.

He's pretty bumpy 

Not showing signs of actual bloat. No retching, attempts to vomit, tightness, or refusal of food.

The other concerning thing: he's been making some strangled, pained sounds at really unpredictable times over the past 3-4 days. Like 3 in the morning. Last night, he whined a lot, but didn't have to go out and showed no other needs. Then, after a pretty simple wrestling match with our 10 month old V, he jumped up on the couch, yelped/cried, and settled right down. We have not been able to identify what the trigger is for this. To say it would be arthritis wouldn't make sense—he still WWF wrestles and hikes just fine. No yelps then.

My concern is that something may have metastasized (and/or the lipomas are bigger than we can see and are pressing on some organs?) or he has a thyroid condition or something?

Anyone else seen something like this before? 

We're going to our vet for a more definitive screening, but thought I'd put this out there to see if I could throw out some ideas tomorrow.

Thank you in advance!

KC


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

I hate cancer, as it has a way of returning in different areas. He's a little young for arthritis. At his age I would only suspect it, if he had a a previous injury in a joint. But there is early onset arthritis, so it would still need to be ruled out.
Vizslas seem to be a breed that are prone to fatty lumps, but keeping their weight down does help. 
I hope your vet can find what's ailing him. And would think a few tests would need to be done, to even come close to a answer.


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## Katie J Cross (Apr 27, 2018)

Thanks Texas Red  

Although he seems healthy, my instincts are all flared up, so I'm glad we're going in to the vet about it. I've been perusing the boards here and am not too encouraged by how many young V's seemed to battle the different kinds of cancer. And the symptoms are so vague I'm sure we'll drop quite a bit of (well spent) money on it. 

He's our first born, basically  Our first dog, first V, and first child. You know how it is!

I'll keep updating and look forward to hearing what people say. Thanks again!


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## gingerling (Jun 20, 2015)

Hi Katie,

First, "malignant" and cancer are interchangeable, so any tumour that's one is by definition the other. Lipomas are benign fatty growths that typically form btwn the skin and the muscle, so they're not as dangerous not only b/c they're benign, but also, b/c they wouldn't press directly on organs, but rather the layer of strong muscle protecting them. I'm one to remove those, not only are they unsightly and ofttimes ungainly for them to carry around, but also, they can (rarely) turn into liposarcomas which are quite malignant.

The dx of cancer is always scary, but not all cancers are lethal, especially if the margins were clean. It sounds like your guy had a mast cell removed..the vet can diagnose the type of cancer it was....and based on the pathology report, can make further recs for treatment, if required. Regardless, he does sound like he has something going on with him so a trip to the vet sounds in order.


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## Katie J Cross (Apr 27, 2018)

Thanks, Gingerling.  

KC


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## Katie J Cross (Apr 27, 2018)

Thought I'd update for those following later on: 

After the vet appointment, we found a melanoma on one leg, another lipoma, and the bumps had all grown. We also tested thyroid. 

Thyroid came back normal, so we're going to try cutting back food. Maybe he's just requiring less because of his age? We'll see if that helps weight gain, even though he's pretty active and doesn't eat a lot anyway.

Today he had 6 more lumps removed. They did a "dermal scan" under sedation where they check every inch of his body. She ended up operating on two lumps on his eyelids. Couldn't remove them completely, but gutted them a bit. One on his nose, belly, and two on his legs. 

One had melanoma, we decided not to send histocytology on the rest.

He's recovering well right now, but has a lot of sutures and will have to be somewhat sedated because the sutures are on his nose and leg. 

From here on out, we'll continue to watch really close and be aggressive to anything else that shows up. I'm hopeful if we can cut his weight down then he'll get fewer lipomas, but he's always been a beast of a dog. Really strong from mountain life, and super long legs to boot. He's currently weighing in at 73 pounds, and when he looks lean, he's about 68-70.

I'll update if anything further develops, but for now, he should be okay! Let's hope! These $300-600 vet bills are expensive back to back. Even though he's worth it


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## Kedves (Nov 18, 2019)

Katie J Cross said:


> Thought I'd update for those following later on:
> 
> After the vet appointment, we found a melanoma on one leg, another lipoma, and the bumps had all grown. We also tested thyroid.
> 
> ...


I hope to resurrect this thread with a hope for an update. Our V was recently diagnosed with malignant melanoma after procedure to remove 4 growths in different areas of her body. 2 of them came back as non malignant as before, unfortunately 2 more were cancer. As a mater of fact, this thread was the reason I came across this forum, as there are no other resources that I could find, combining Vizsla and melanoma in one sentence. From my search I have a feeling there is really not much that can be done to have it disappeared. Have a visit with the vet tomorrow for stitches removal, so I guess we all will explore all the options. Our V will be 10 next month, and from what I sensed over the phone from the vet when he called with test results, he will be very hesitant to recommend chemo or something along those lines.


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