Hi all. My 16 yr old staff x mate has developed a lump on his bottom eye lid. Took him to the vet. They said freeze / burn off or cut n stitch. With later changing eye shape permanently but former may not work. Also wants to do it under full anaesthetic, but he is old and chilled and research suggests a local is fine. Still runs/ swims every day. So in good nick for 16.
Anyone been through this? Advice?
Ah, man… Sorry to that, hope the pup's all good…
Is leaving it alone an option, or does it give the poor guy trouble?
Has the vet commented on the results of leaving it alone?
And finally, bit of a strange question… but have you sought a second opinion?
And I only ask because there one local vet here, who will glance at a pup and immediately recommend dental surgery… Then there's the younger counterpart (that the dog actually likes), who will take a look at the same tooth, tell you it's fine and recommend an occasional dental chew to keep any plaque build up away.
My 16yr old dog had a lump on top eyelid that sounds similar. I didn't want to put her under because of risk with old age. In the end I did nothing and she scratched it off herself every time it got too big. Kept growing back after a while so this cycle went on for a while. In the end it didn't grow back very big and she left it as it didn't worry her. My vet said anything short of cutting it out would mean it would grow back.
It was a small wart like lump, but just recently doubled to about half a pea and it irritates his eye. So need to do something I recon. Would be happier with a local injection though. But he is still quiet active, eating well, so guess he'll be fine.
Always tricky doing any form of procedure with only local anaesthetic on board (more so in a dog for an eyelid lump removal). surgical excision under GA would give best margins and should be able to get good apposition of skin edges so as not to change the cosmetics dramatically. Yes older dogs carry a higher anaesthetic risk but if his bloodwork is normal, heart and lung auscultation is normal then I think removal under GA would be preferable esp if it is causing him discomfort. Or you could take a chance at cryo and see if it returns.
Cheers for the reply. He has very small/ fine lids. Pink bully type lids. The vet is doing the cryo method under general anaesthetic. Just wondering if that is over kill as he was happy / waging his tail while vet was examining lump?
Burning a skin lump using local anaesthetic on the body (eg. on the chest or abdomen) is more tolerable as you have more subcutaenous area for the local anaesthetic to disperse. On the eyelids of a conscious dog however it would be tricky/scary to inject local anaesthetic. A staffy-type dog has a massive, heavy head so attempting to restrain them during the cryo may also be hard. If you decide to put him under GA why not completely excise it while your there? The costly part of the procedure is usually the GA.
@sim777: The vet said his eye lid will totally change shape/ be half closed if he removes it as a V and sews back up. Said it would be $400 for the cryo option.
Hi all. Woofa had his surgery this morning and all went well. He's still a bit groggy/ sleeping it off, but the vet said it went better than expected. Thanks for all your help and support.
Did the vet tell you what it was?
If it's a wart, which is very common on young and older dogs because of their immune system, it will almost certainly come back.
Not really, he said a suspected skin cancer due to lack of pigment/ pink eyelids and his age. It is actually looking really good today already. Has always been a pretty good healer (actually is part Healer!). He also only charged me $140 due to it being easier than expected. Kudos to the Vet! Hopefully it doesn't return.
That's cheap and sounds like a good outcome.
My 2 year old American Staffordshire got a lump inside his ear.
Vet told me it was either a fatty lump or tumour.
Quoted me $1200.
I ended up leaving it after reading online that it was just a wart and would fall off.
Fell off a month ago and healed up perfectly, glad I didn't go through with it.
Lump has unfortunately grown back. More external on his eyelid this time with less eye irritation. Hope it falls off.
Our dog has a lump on the bottom eyelid that is growing. My wife is a vet nurse and says that it will have to go in for surgery to remove it once it starts irritating the eye. (At the moment it is still very small).