I would say have it aspirated to have it checked, but then....
even so, the op is horrid for the dog.

Ellie Suffered sooooo much my having it done, it took away her quality of life.

You will know exactly what to do..........

Although Ellie was 7, she was an old dog. If you know what I mean

Good Luck

x x x

My dog has one on her stomach it's been there years i did take her and they wanted to take her in to do a biopsy but i wasn't keen on leaving her so they let me take her for a 20 minute app and they done it while i was there.
They said they do normally have them addmitted and sedated but will do it the way mine was done for calm well behaved dogs.

Having the lump aspirated will nto be to invasive, they can do it without any anaesthetic ,

It may give you an answer to the problem(being cancer or not ) but sometimes they cant get enough to test properly, and the results will be inconclusive.

But you have to ask yourself what you will do if its cancer, would you put her through any surgery /chemo at her age, or would you give her palliative care for the time she has left. if its the latter, then there may be no point in doing the aspiration, its something you need to consider.

For what its worth, if she was mine, I would probably have the lump aspirated, (thats if my dog was a good patient and did not get to stressed at the vets) but thats all I would do, at best it gives you an answer , at worst it also gives you an answer.

Others may do different, but I have always said, that I will never put an older dog under any undue treatment to save their lives (it usually only buys the a bit if time) I would rather try to keep them pain free till their times comes and allow them to go peacefully.

The x-rays will be to see if its spread, it will show up any shadowing or spotting internally.

Me and the other half have spoken about it and have decided if they will allow it to be aspirated without sedation then thats the route we will take. She is very good at the vets and hasn't a care in the world, so I am hoping they will take this into consideration and allow it to be done.

I am hoping that it will give us an answer, either way we will have to cross that bridge when we get to it.
If it does turn out to be the big C at her age we wouldn't allow any treatment to be done and like you said we will keep her pain free until her time comes.

Thanks, can they do an x-ray without sedation? as this was another sedation procedure they mentioned and told us to think about

It can be difficult as they are not supposed to hold her, due to that exposing them to the X rays as they do it and most dogs wouldn't reliably keep still enough for a X ray without either being steadied by being held, or due to being sedated

I see so this by the looks of it is out of the question, thanks Tass for clarifying for me

Kyiro had a lump aspirated and the vet done it while I was there in the consulting room with no sedation under a normal consultation appointment. He has also had an x-ray with no sedation.
Our vets also gave one of our heart guinea pigs regular x-rays with no sedation. Some vets are willing to do it and some are not. It would be worth asking the vet you are seeing if there is a vet in the practice that will do it. We had two vets willing to do it now we have just one.
I hope it turns out not to be the dreaded "C" word, but at least the aspiration would hopefully confirm it one way or another. It would be awful for you to be worrying thats what it is if it isn't. I think I would need to know.

Vets at 4:45 today, my stomach is in knots.
Will let you all know what they say when I get back

Fingers, paws & tails all crossed.

Good Luck x