Needle Aspirate Results Inconclusive

[Guest SusanP]

The needle aspirate for Zippy's leg lump was inconclusive--the vets at our clinic didn't know what to make of it. They said it's not normal, more than one size cell, I think they mentioned "round" cells? Also white blood cells, but they don't think it's infected. They suggested we do another needle aspiration and send it off to a lab tonite. We should get the results by week's end.

 

But now I'm worrying that I should just schedule surgery asap to get it off of her.

 

The thing is, this will be the 4th time in just over a year she's had to have something removed, and I hate to keep putting her through that if it isn't necessary. But I'm worried about waiting for lab results.

 

What would you do?

[Batmom]

If it isn't bothering her and isn't growing, wait for the lab results. Couple days isn't likely to make a difference.

 

If it's bothering her or growing rapidly, schedule surgery.

 

 

That's me, though. You might have other/different worries.

[Guest meakah]

I do agree with Batmom. Rapid growth is usually a bad sign so if it is growing rapidly...get it removed. But if it is just staying the same and isn't bother your pup...wait for the lab results.

[Guest koolaidnconner]

Kool Aid had a lomp on his ear that started growing and getting gross, so we just made the decision to have it removed immediatly. Fortunatly it was just an infection. We should have gone just with the antibiotic cream that the vet wanted to do but we felt that we would rather have a missing part of his ear than risk cancer. It is all in how you feel.

[Guest SusanP]

I talked to the vet again. Sent in the aspirate for cytology report and also scheduled surgery for Thurs am next week--I can always cancel if it's ok, but this round cell business sounds potentially very worrisome.

[HopeForHounds]

I talked to the vet again. Sent in the aspirate for cytology report and also scheduled surgery for Thurs am next week--I can always cancel if it's ok, but this round cell business sounds potentially very worrisome.

 

 

Sounds like a good choice Susan. I can see your concern with the number of surgeries already. Not to worry you, but Foxy's aspirate had round cells which worried the vet. We opted to remove the lump, but that was her first surgery since we had her. If it does turn out to be what Foxy had it is the best of the cancers if that makes sense. Plus Dr Couto has a treatment he uses after tumor removal. What colour was the fluid they removed?

Again if you want to talk, PM me your number.

[Guest SusanP]

The fluid they removed was bloody as far as I could tell. I may need to talk when I learn more. From what the vet said, some round cell tumors are not dangerous at all (but she said they typically don't see those in 10 year old dogs), and some would require just removal of the tumor, other types would require chemo along with removal of the tumor, etc... What they can't tell without the cytology report is what kind of round cells they are.

 

I just love my Zippy. I don't want her to go through more surgery, and I don't want her to have cancer.

[jodyksam]

Daisy's second lump, which was removed in January, was small enough to do via a local injection. Like you, I wanted to avoid having her put under. The results were inconclusive, but after a second opinion from another lab/vet, I elected to have it removed. No recurrences yet.

[HopeForHounds]

If it helps, Foxy had a very quick recovery. She never limped or bothered her incision. She did have a drain and stitiches, but left it all alone. She did lick the shaved spot from the IV site. The chemo Dr Couto uses is done by injection into the site the tumor was.

Another thing, when Foxy had her's removed, she had no clear margins, we were told re growth was likely in 3 months, she was still clear 4 years later.

Edited October 8, 2008 by foxysmom

[LuvAPuppy]

there are two kinds of round cell tumors that I know of from working in the lab: one is almost always benign - histiocytoma. and the other is sometimes benign, but sometimes not - mast cell. Histio will go away on its own in 6-8 weeks. mast cell should be removed. Hopefully once you get your cyto result back it will be histio and you can cancel surgery!!!