Cost to remove a lump on a dog....

Colosolo

Hi,

My 14 year old dog has a lump at the top of her leg, the FNA came back unsure if it was benign or a possible mast cell tumor.

It's only small and easy to remove the vet said. 

I just wondered what others pay for such a procedure. I have been quoted £1300 

I believe that also includes sending away the sample for analysis.

I'm assuming that's not some high end price and quite normal

It's a shame the FNA wasn't conclusive, I hate putting her through surgery at this age,

If it is cancer I hope it's a low grade one and totally removed.

One thing they didnt do, was check her over. As in her weight or check her heart, the normal routine checks they do.

It's a new vet as we recently moved.

elsien

It will depend whereabouts in the country you are, but that seems expensive to me. 

A dog that age would normally have a more extensive and costly range of blood tests for kidney function before a general anaesthetic That should already have been discussed with you? 

I think I’d probably be considering the purpose of the operation - my 14-year-old dog has lumps and bumps all over over the place, and tests were inconclusive. The biggest lump under the armpit isn’t possible to remove as would be too big an operation.
I’ve decided to leave well alone on the ground that if any lumps were cancerous and they can’t remove all of it, I’m not going be putting him through any further treatment anyway. 

hugheskevi

For a very large 11 year old dog in London the cost of a similar procedure was £1,100 but that did not include analysis of the removed tumour. Prior analysis had suggested it was benign.

I would really consider the pros and cons of the operation on such an old dog, it may be easy to remove but it is still a very traumatic experience for the dog and no operation is risk free.

Green_hopeful

We have had a series of tumours removed from our cat. We paid £450 for each operation. That included £35 for a drip to help her with the anaesthetic and £50 for blood tests. Plus an X-ray of her lungs because that is where the cancer is likely to go next. We didn’t test the tumours because we are not giving her chemo or radiotherapy. Six months on from her most recent op she seems fine. 

We go to an independent vet. You can check on companies house who owns the vets. If it’s one or more of the vets that work there it’s independent. We have found our vet to cost about 1/3 of the price of a corporate vet. 

Colosolo

hugheskevi said:

For a very large 11 year old dog in London the cost of a similar procedure was £1,100 but that did not include analysis of the removed tumour. Prior analysis had suggested it was benign.

I would really consider the pros and cons of the operation on such an old dog, it may be easy to remove but it is still a very traumatic experience for the dog and no operation is risk free.

Thank you. I am in London, and she is a small/medium dog at 12kg.

It's really difficult to know what to do. She has not had any other tests from this vet, I took my other dog in the day before for something minor and she was given routine tests.  They just phoned me and sent me the lab report and told me that surgery was recommended.  On the plus side they did tell me to give her Piriton, to reduce the histamine rather than pay for vets medication. But you see a different vet on each visit it seems.

Then comes her age, last year she had an operation for pyometra, and she did really well.  Part of me feels that she is 14 but then her mother lived to 17. 

It's really difficult to know what to do. 

Bue21

My boy (large dog - 35kg, then age 8) had 2 lumps removed and a couple of x rays (unrelated as I took the opportunity to look at his hips!) earlier this year. Only did it because one lump was getting bigger and vet was concerned it would affect the movement of his shoulder. Cost including x rays was about £1500. We didn’t get the lumps tested as had already had a biopsy done on the larger one. I know the biopsy would have added another £200 or so. We are in the southeast.

thriftytracey

My friend's elderly shitzu had a cancerous tumour on her leg removed.  I am not sure of the cost.  They removed the tumour and the dog survived the operation but she died a month later.  

ladyholly

Not saying you should have the lump removed or not but bear in mind that the older the dog the more risky a general anaesthetic will be.

Colosolo

Thanks. The second vet said to wait and see. She seems in good health for 14, so I have to monitor it to see if it grows.

But then afterwards I remembered that Mast Cell tumors get smaller and bigger, they change.  But I will take his advice and keep an eye on it for now.