Possible mouth cancer

Hi my 10 & a half year old staffy has steadily gained lumps & skin tags etc over the last few years since he's started getting older which we get checked every time we visit the vet to pick up his prescriptions. The latest one we noticed was on on the centre of his bottom lip, more outside the mouth going towards the chin than actually towards the gums etc. The lump hasn't caused him any discomfort at all but we did notice it start to get bigger so we took him into the vets early to get it checked out & were told it will have to removed & then tested for around £800. They also said if it dose turn out to be something bad like cancer then he would probably be looking at more surgery & loosing part of his jaw, or consider putting him to sleep. The thought of either of which makes me feel sick.

As you do I Googled the subject to try & get some understanding of things, I could only really find stuff written by US vets but everything seemed to say an Aspiration sample should be taken first so the vet knows what they are actually dealing with which would affect the type of surgery that would be needed etc. So my partner rang the vet today to ask why this wasn't an option. The vet said it wouldn't be a good idea to take an Aspiration sample as it'd cause a lot of bleeding because of the lumps location & then he'd need more surgery anyway. My partner said she tried to explain to the vet we were just trying to make sure we were doing the best thing for our dog but thinks that the vet may have been slightly offended by us asking questions but who knows.

I obviously want do do what is rite for my dog so my head is in tatters at the moment, he's booked in for surgery tomorrow & I'm stressing over thoughts of is this definately the best cause of action for him? If it is cancer would I want to put him through yet more surgery at his age & get part of his jaw removed which may or may not work? If the answer to that question is no then is it even rite to put him through the trauma of the first surgery tomorrow? He's sat here happy as Larry at the min, not a care in the world playing with his Kong

Can you post pictures of what you're dealing with? I recall reading on another forum about papillomas.

As I say it dosen't seem to cause him any discomfort what so ever

Did the vet test for warts?

Hi there,

I read your post about possible mouth cancer and I just wanted to reassure you if I can?, I know this is a very upsetting and scary time but you must trust your Vet, once the lump is biopsied you will know if it is cancer but this is NOT a death sentence for your dog. I know a dog who had oral cancer and surgery to remove the tumour involved taking teeth and part of the palate but this dog has since led a perfectly happy healthy life (over 2 years now since surgery)

Be strong for your baby xxx

Hi landseer it was my partner who took him in to the vets so I will double check but I am certain that she said the vet only visually inspected the lump. I did miss out one part of the story as I felt my original post was getting a bit to long. When we first got the diagnosis it was only a few days before we were due to go on holiday for 2 weeks so my partner asked if there was something else like medication we could try on him while we were away as we didn't want to put him through surgery just before leaving the country. The Vet gave us some antibiotics to try which I seem to remember reading can be used on warts but it had no effect & the vet said when we took him back that she knew the medication would not work so I am assuming in her mind she was pretty sure it wasn't warts without testing if thats possible.


Thanks for the kind support waggytail

Well had a stressful & weird day today!

We took the dog some considerable distance to his vets main surgery building this morning as they don't do operations at our local branch.

After dropping him off we made the long drive home expecting to get a call in the afternoon to tell us what time we could pick him up. Instead aprox 30 minutes after arriving home the vet called me & talked very quickly non stop for about 10 minutes throwing far to much technical information at me in a rather random fashion which made it extremely difficult to keep up. The gist of what she said was my dogs blood tests showed there may be a problem with his kidneys so it could be risky to anaesthetise him. She also mentioned it could just be be dehydration but for various reasons she doubted that was the case. She then asked how I'd like to proceed but I was so confused by this point I basically asked what she'd recommend. She said it probably wasn't worth the risk putting him under to remove something that was probably nothing & just bothering us more than it was him, now that struck me as very odd as I'd said from the start we'd rather just leave it if it didn't have to come off. Anyway she asked if we wanted a urine test done to assess his kidneys while we were on our way back over to pick him up which I agreed to.

When we got to the vets she came out & said the urine tests showed that he was actually just dehydrated & there wasn't a problem with his kidneys! At this point I'm thinking well you told us not to let him drink today before his op??? She then went on to say it'd probably just be better to leave the lump for now seeing how we were worried about things & then have a think if we wanted it off later as its probably not doing any harm. So after all the stress & wasted time off work today plus around £200 lighter in the wallet for the vet bills we are still in exactly the same position as where we started!!!

Is there another vet around that can take a look at your dog? The whole situation sounds a little weird.

I wouldn't be happy with that carry on tbh. I lost a Dobermann a couple of years ago to a form of oral cancer, it looked nothing like your dogs to be fair but hers was a form of skin cancer inside the mouth, it looked like an overgrowth of gum to start with. Anyway once dogs reach a certain age they should always do bloods and urine in advance of a GA so I dunno what your vet was playing at. Anyway we were pretty certain hers was cancer and two weeks waiting for test results confirmed it. Although all we could see was an overgrowth of gum xrays revealed her palate had been eaten into and what we thought was a loose tooth was in fact the upper jaw itself moving around as there was so little holding it in place. I have to say her breath was absolutely rank too and prior to that her teeth and gums were pristine. I'd be looking for a new vet tbh.

Yes I am seriously considering changing vets now which is a shame as I think the practice is quite good and the previous vets we've dealt with from there have been very helpful.

This is the first time I've met the vet who dealt with my dogs mouth lump problem & from the few times I've spoke with her it seems like she is probably very intelligent academically & experienced as a vet but is extremely poor at communicating with customers & what I'd best describe as an eccentric & a bit scatty. I suppose we could ask not to see that particular vet in future but that could be a bit awkward.

Think I'll start looking at other local practices today but as theres not really any online ratings/review sites for vets that I can find I suppose it'll just be a case of pot luck again.