Fast-Growing Lumps in Dogs: Yuki’s Swelling

Discovering a lump on your dog is a scary business. Fortunately, not all lumps are tumors.

It is possible that what looks and feels like a lump is a swelling instead. Potential causes include immune reactions or infections which can be due to:

  • insect bites and stings
  • injuries
  • foreign bodies

The essential step in dealing with a lump is identification—that is what determines treatment options.

Fast-Growing Lumps in Dogs: Yuki's Swelling. Discovering a lump on your dog is a scary business. Fortunately, not all lumps are tumors.

Yuki’s story

Yuki was a lovely, happy young Boxer. She enjoyed every day of her life. Recently, though, she hit an unlucky streak when it came to her health.

A couple of months prior, Yuki suffered severe gastroenteritis and needed hospitalization. She recovered only to come up with a new challenge—a large, firm, painful swelling on her torso. It already started the size of a golf ball but quickly grew to the size of a melon. When anybody touched it, Yuki flinched.

At the veterinarian

Her distraught mom took Yuki to a veterinarian. In order to treat Yuki, the veterinarian had to figure out what the lump was.

X-rays showed the structure and precise location of it. The massive lump developed directly under the skin and didn’t affect any bones or organs. The veterinarian took a biopsy to identify what cells the lump contained to rule out cancer.

He was covering all bases even though he suspected an infection or a foreign body such as a splinter or a grass awn. While that is much better news than cancer, these things are hard to find.

Yuki’s treatment

While they were waiting for biopsy results, Yuki received a prescription for antibiotics to address the suspected infection.

When the biopsy results came, they confirmed the preliminary diagnosis. Meanwhile, the antibiotics shrunk the lump to its original golf-ball size. As soon as Yuki finished the treatment, though, the lump quickly expanded again.

Scheduling MRI scan

It must have been a foreign body wrecking all the havoc. Finding such thing, though, can be like looking for a needle in a haystack—the veterinarian scheduled Yuki for an MRI scan, hoping to find it. Once located, he could remove it without additional risk of damaging surrounding tissues.

The problem takes care of itself

While Yuki was waiting for her MRI appointment, her swelling suddenly burst spilling out its content and—a wood splinter.

Both health issues were connected

You would think that GI upset and the swelling on Yuki’s side couldn’t possibly have one underlying cause. Yet, they did.

Yuki’s stomach got upset after she chewed up wicker basked. A piece of the wicker punched through Yuki’s stomach wall and traveled to the surface. Yuki’s body was rejecting the foreign object, which caused all the swelling. And, in Yuki’s case, her body indeed succeeded purging the culprit.

Yuki was very lucky.

Source story:
Yuki the 1-year-old Boxer Developed a Swelling

Related articles:
What Is That Bump on My Dog: Canine Lumps, Bumps, and Growths

Further reading:
Lumps and Bumps on Dogs

Categories: Conditions • Dog health advocacy • Foreign bodies • Swelling • Symptoms

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Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer, dog health advocate, writer, and author. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Countless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care in my own hands. I learned the hard way that merely seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough, but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to get a diagnosis. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn, and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people how to recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian, and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to save others the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way as I did. That is the mission behind my blog and behind my writing. That is why I wrote Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog, which has turned out being an award-winning guide to dog owners. What I'm trying to share encompasses 20 years of experience.

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