Lump on friend's dog's lip - should they be concerned?

Hi all,

I have a friend that's concerned about a lump on their Dog's lip.
He's 3 years, 4 months old, his Mom was a Artic Wolf & Lab mix and Dad was a Shihtzu & Terrier mix.

They took him to the Vets the other day (paid $200 for the privilege!) and all they really got told was that it *might* be cancer or histiocytoma.
They can surgically remove it and send it away for analysis to determine if it's cancerous etc. which would cost another $800!

Having looked in to this a bit, from what I've seen, it is not like any cancer/histiocytoma pictures I have found anywhere else.

Here's a picture of what it looks like:


The lump has not grown any bigger, is hard, smooth and has not bled.

I was wondering if anyone had ever seen anything like this before, or had an idea if it was likely to be cancer/histiocytoma?

Any help is very much appreciated (especially as it could potentially save my friend $800!).

Thank you very much!

It could be anything and would not like to take a guess If it was me I would have a fine needle aspirate done first to see what it is then get it removed if it is anything bad.

Hi Joe and welcome
It really is difficult to tell from a photograph, my experience of histioscytoma is that they are a darker red in colour and not smooth but knobbly like a blackberry.

There are different kinds of tumours both benign and malignant and only a biopsy can really say what the growth is.

I guess your friend doesn't have pet insurance.
I am sorry I can't save your friend money, with dog ownership comes the luck of the draw and the possibility you may be unlucky and have to pay out for expensive diagnosis and treatment for your dog.

Thanks very much both of you for the replies

No, unfortunately my friend does not have pet insurance - they live overseas and it sounds like it works differently there than it does here in the UK - in that this would not be covered even if they did (though I'm not 100% certain of this).

Some time ago, one of our dogs had something similar to this; the vet removed it and it turned out to be a benign growth, but this is not to say that your friend's dog has the same thing.

It really does need to be investigated I think, and apart from anything else it is in a place where accidental damage is a high risk.

We all could do without vet bills, but sometimes they are inevitable unfortunately

First thing that came to mind was an Epilus

http://www.nsgs.it/indexaa999.htm.

I'd get it checked out properly at the vet though

Thanks for the advice everyone! I've let them know it's worth doing something about it ASAP and mentioned the possibility of doing a fine needle aspirate.