Dawg-gone-it!

 

In the last week or so we noticed that Wittle Winston has a bump on the back of his neck. At first I thought maybe it was just a cut that become a little swollen but then it wasn’t going away and become more protruding from the back of his neck. Of course my husband says… Pop it! Eww! I can’t pop it! But then I thought back to my college days of castrating pigs and docking tails of lambs no more then a week old. (Yeah I did all that) I said to myself “Brittany, you wimp! This is just a big pimple come on now!”

So I prepped:

#1: Get a needle out and disinfected it first with a lighter then by soaking it in rubbing alcohol.

#2: Run alcohol on a clean cotton ball or pad and clean the area of the skin.

#3: Hold cyst and poke with needle then squeeze

#4: Nothing is happening

Well, after reading a little more into this the cyst will sometimes “Wall off” or it’s head has not made its way yet. So I was done. I’m not going to hurt my dog and I certainly didn’t want to infect to sore.

Then I got thinking, maybe this isn’t a cyst… What if it is something else. So once again I did what any person in this situation would do and I GOOGLED (are you surprised?) the term “Lump on young dogs neck”. All of the sudden I am seeing the words histiocytoma everywhere. I read about what it is and it happens to be a bump that occurs on young dogs 3 and under. It is read with no hair and is benign (meaning not cancerous). Now I’m worried, so I make a vet appointment.

Today Winston got to “Go for a Ride” which in his world means everything around him has now stopped, he could care less if you try to give him a treat, or if you are still trying to get your coat on, all he is thinking is “CAR”. He is so good when we go places.We got to the Vet and we were there for 8 minutes to hear that “yes, it is a cyst & most likely will go away in the matter of months. However, if it grows larger to the size of a golf ball then we are going to need to remove it".” Eww, again… seriously the size of a golf ball? That’s disgusting. I am glad that it is just a little cyst though and am hoping it clears up on its own.

For my 8 minutes of one on one time with a vet I paid, $41.00! Man oh man I choose the WRONG profession. I hope you all learn from me & will not jump at every little worry.

I left the pictures for the end in case you didn’t want to look.

                          histiocytoma (more relevant in the Boxer breed)

Dog Cyst

*Now you can see why I was worried. They look very alike! The vet did say Histiocytomi are much redder in color and are lower to the skin (not raised).