Lipoma and Liposarcoma in the Dog: Fatty Tumors
Dr. Demian Dressler is internationally recognized as “the dog cancer vet” because of his innovations in the field of dog cancer management, and the popularity of his blog here at Dog Cancer Blog. The owner of South Shore Veterinary Care, a full-service veterinary hospital in Maui, Hawaii, Dr. Dressler studied Animal Physiology and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Davis before earning his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. After practicing at Killewald Animal Hospital in Amherst, New York, he returned to his home state, Hawaii, to practice at the East Honolulu Pet Hospital before heading home to Maui to open his own hospital. Dr. Dressler consults both dog lovers and veterinary professionals, and is sought after as a speaker on topics ranging from the links between lifestyle choices and disease, nutrition and cancer, and animal ethics. His television appearances include “Ask the Vet” segments on local news programs. He is the author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Full Spectrum Treatments to Optimize Your Dog’s Life Quality and Longevity. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Avian Veterinarians, the National Animal Supplement Council and CORE (Comparative Orthopedic Research Evaluation). He is also an advisory board member for Pacific Primate Sanctuary.
Updated: May 15th, 2024
Summary
Is that soft squishy lump on your dog something to worry about? It depends.
Many times dog lovers will arrive in my hospital and point out that their canine companion has a bump. They are soft, kind of like very firm jello. “Doesn’t seem to be causing any pain,” they say.
Hmmm. Well, it could be a “fatty” tumor. This is simply a tumor made out of fat. Yes, a big glob of fat, the same stuff that makes us chubby.
Some clients have used natural means to help their dogs with these tumors. I have had my clients say they have had luck with curcumin given by mouth. Curcumin is a part of the spice turmeric. In The Dog Cancer Survival Guide, I wrote about this bioflavonoid. It can be purchased as an ingredient in Apocaps, and also by itself as a sole agent.
Many dog lovers have heard of fatty tumors, and have been told by their vets that there is nothing to worry about. And many times, they are right.
Not every time, though.
Some Fatty Tumors Are Cancers
Here’s why: first of all, not every soft tumor is a “fatty” tumor. Remember mast cell tumors, the Great Imitators? Some mast cell tumors are aggressive, life-threatening cancers. And they can feel just like a benign fatty tumor.
Your vet can differentiate between a fatty tumor and a mast cell tumor with a simple fine needle aspirate. This is an easy outpatient procedure where the vet takes a sample with a needle and sends it to a pathologist. Many of us will review the slide right in house.
Another soft gushy tumor, especially on the limbs, in called a hemangiopericytoma. This is an unfriendly tumor, folks.
Because two dangerous tumors can look like fatty tumors (lipomas) I recommend that all such tumors get aspirated.
Some Fatty Tumors Are Dangerous In Other Ways
Secondly, not every tumor made out of fat is truly benign. Most are, and they are called lipomas. However, a small portion of them grow aggressively. They invade surrounding tissue. They often grow fairly quickly, over months, and expand. These fast growing lipomas have crossed the line and become what are called liposarcomas.
Get the Dog Cancer Survival Guide to learn more on how veterinarians diagnose and stage cancer in Chapter 9
The reason it matters is that they can become quite large. And you remove them and they will often regrow, since they are difficult to remove. You think you got ’em, and they come back.
Liposarcomas are not good news. So again, if you have a rapidly growing, fatty tumor, get it out. You might be dealing with a liposarcoma, and they can be tough. Have the vet biopsy the edge, and make sure they include adjacent muscle, or the path folks may complain they don’t have enough data to make a call.
Best to all,
Dr Dressler
Dr. Demian Dressler is internationally recognized as “the dog cancer vet” because of his innovations in the field of dog cancer management, and the popularity of his blog here at Dog Cancer Blog. The owner of South Shore Veterinary Care, a full-service veterinary hospital in Maui, Hawaii, Dr. Dressler studied Animal Physiology and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Davis before earning his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. After practicing at Killewald Animal Hospital in Amherst, New York, he returned to his home state, Hawaii, to practice at the East Honolulu Pet Hospital before heading home to Maui to open his own hospital. Dr. Dressler consults both dog lovers and veterinary professionals, and is sought after as a speaker on topics ranging from the links between lifestyle choices and disease, nutrition and cancer, and animal ethics. His television appearances include “Ask the Vet” segments on local news programs. He is the author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Full Spectrum Treatments to Optimize Your Dog’s Life Quality and Longevity. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Avian Veterinarians, the National Animal Supplement Council and CORE (Comparative Orthopedic Research Evaluation). He is also an advisory board member for Pacific Primate Sanctuary.
Dr. Doc,
My 5 year old Maltese developed two squishy lumps on his stomach about a year ago. Within 2 months of noticing these lumps, they had moved lower towards his groin area (near where his lymph nodes are). The two lumps are almost identical in size and there is one on each side of his groin (lymph node area). My vet did 2 find needle aspirations (3 samples from each lump) and both times, the pathologist determined that they were lipomas.
It has been almost a year since I first found them and there hasn’t been any changes in size or movement.
Is there anything you would recommend in regards to supplements, vitamins or natural remedies?
Many thanks in advance,
Joyce
Dear Joyce,
first, make sure everything you do is under vet supervision. Having said that, I have had some success with Apocaps combined with low calorie diet in some (although not all) of my patients.
Hope this helps,
Best,
D
Dr D, my nine year old Rottweiler over the last few months was having some breathing through her nose issues..like huffing/expelling air out her nose. Very sporadic and short episodes, 10 secs or so..She then had a nose bleed so i took her in to the vet. They did some x-rays and bloodwork and all came back normal. They thought maybe she had a bacterial infection and put her on Cipro. A week later, she had another terrible nose bleed and i decided to go ahead with some further testing. They discovered an abscessed tooth with a fistula that had made it’s way into her sinus cavity. They extracted the tooth and we all assumed that was it. In the meantime, i decided to have the tooth biopsied just in case. I received the results the other day and was devastated to hear that it was cancer. They found liposarcoma cells on the tissue of the tooth. This is normally a cancer of fat cells and appears usually on the chest area. None of the doctors have ever seen this kind of cancer in this area of the body. Underneath her eye is also pretty swollen and now she is constantly dripping blood from her nose. Sometimes heavy, sometimes light, sometimes mostly clear….Have you ever heard of this?? Do you have any advice?? She is still eating and happy. I, however, am not 🙁
Dear Erin,
so sorry to hear this news. No fun.
This is odd for sure. A bizarre location for it.
What are you doing for diet changes? Supplements? Apocaps? Yunnan baiyao?
Have you read the Guide? It is an easy read and I think you will find it useful.
Also see:
https://www.dogcancerblog.com/blog/diagnosis-of-nasal-tumors/
https://www.dogcancerblog.com/blog/chinese-herb-for-bleeding-dog-cancers/
Please always work under under vet supervision,
Best,
D
Doc:
My 4 1/2 yr old FlatCoat Retriever (Kiwi) was diagnosed with liposarcoma in his left leg back in late July. Subsequently we had his front left quarter & leg amputated. Physically he responded great, he’s running, jumping and could care-less he’s doing it all on three legs. Today we took him for a ninety day follow-up. The surgeon did his exam and was really happy with the appearance and feel of everything, right up until he felt his lymph node swollen at the point where our dogs leg had been. X-rays showed nothing had spread to his chest, however, he’s concerned and if it is the cancer returning he didn’t recommend further surgery. While our Doc is great and did a fine job on the surgery (surgical-oncologist) he is going to send us to a specialist for the next course of action. In your experience, have you had any similar situations in a dog that is young & relatively healthy like our dog? If so, what sort of treatment would you recommend?
If you do reply, I will get back to you on what the Oncologist recommends after Kiwi is seen.
Thanks,
Larry
Dr D, i just now found that you had responded to my comment from November 11th above…anyway, wanted to let you know that the vet put her on Prednisone and low dose Benadryl. On my own, i started to also give her Noni juice (1 shot twice a day)..about two weeks later, her symptoms (constant nose bleed and eye swelling) started to decrease and then after a few more days were completely GONE!! She proceeded to get better and then level off and since then she has been doing really well. I don’t know if you know about Noni but i am now convinced that this has helped as when i went back to refill my prescription for the Prednisone, i discovered that they had given me 5mg tablets the first time instead of 20mg. So, she was only taking 15mg a dose when it should have been 60! I am sure that the cancer is still growing because she eats a lot but she is slowly losing weight..however it hasn’t stopped her at all.. her spirits are 100% and we are happy for every day. Thanks again for your response.
My 13 yr.old female beagle just had a lipoma removed that proved to be liposarcoma. It was 7″ in diameter and weighed 4lbs. Because tissue in the muscle was necrotic, this little sweetheart had to have quite a bit of muscle tissue removed. This fatty tumor or as they called it, “unevenly distributed fat”, grew hard and gigantic in two weeks. Did we get it in time?
The necrotic tissue is so widespread that there isn’t enough healthy tissue to hold her stitches. We are irrigating the ports with betadine and then spraying Trypzyme to encourage the generation of new tissue.
We love this sweet, smart stray we adopted 10 years ago. She seems to be doing a lot better than us. Will we know when it’s time to let her go? Will our Vet help us with this decision? We’ll do anything for her, but keep her in pain.
Our sweet 13 yr.old beagle, Lizzie, had what doctors called a fatty tumor. We were told that lipoma’s are rarely malignant. It grew to 7in. in diameter and weighed 5lb. It was causing her to stumble and it finally split open requiring emergeny surgery. She came home the very next morning. Happy, hungry and waiting to go out for her walks. However, the skin wouldn’t hold the stitches and pink serum flowed from not only the ports, but the new splits in skin. We are irrigating the ports with betadine and using an enzyme that will form new skin. We have decided that our little girl has had enough. She’s not in pain now. but when it’s time we will love her more than ourselves. We just can’t let go yet.
Dear Kathleen,
I am so sorry to hear this news. This is a very difficult time. Thinking of you,
D
I have a 12 year old lab mix that has had liposarcoma removed twice from her front leg. She now has two additional tumors on her chest/belly that I was going to have removed, however, the surgery is 3500 and I am not sure how much it will extend her life. If I don’t do the surgery, what can I expect. If I do the surgery, could another tumor develop tomorrow? I’m so nervous that I’ll regret doing it or regret not doing it. I’m very torn about this.
Dear Stacy,
sorry to hear about this.
Do we know what kind of tumors are on your dog’s chest? This would answer the question of whether they are dangerous or not, and also how quickly they could be expected to come back. You should look into Apocaps and the other steps in the Guide too, with your vet’s supervision.
I hope this helps,
Dr D
Dear Dr. Dressler,
I have a 10 year old very large (120lbs) Wiemeraner who has numerous Fatty tumors (they started when he was 5) I had one large one removed on his rib cage at the age of 6 years. This was a very long and difficult recovery for him. He now has more than we can count, he has a HUGE tumor on the other side of the rib cage which we/the vet has been watching for the last year as he felt the dog is to old for surgery and taking into consideration his difficulty with the prior surger we decided against it, the tumor just went though another growing spirt and is so large now he can no longer walk normally, he does not limp the tumro has spread under his armpit and obviously is involved with other tissue and muscle. This tumor has been confirmed as non cancerous twice. Is there anything that can be done about the growth? I have changed his diet etc over the past couple of years thinking maybe his diet had something to do with these growths, again he has hundreds of these all over, some big some small but everywhere? I know he is now uncomfortable with the HUGE one and I am considering that he may need to be put to sleep since his function of that leg is so bad.
Any help would be appreciated.
Jenifer
Dear Jenifer,
have you had a chance to read the Guide? If this were my patient, I would change to the Dog Cancer Diet, and give Apocaps a for a couple of months. Please be sure to have your vet involved in all the medical decisions for your dog.
Best,
D
[…] Lipoma and Liposarcoma in the Dog: Fatty TumorsAn look at the fatty tumor, and some important facts dog lovers should know. […]
hey, my Dalmatian is 13 years old. about 6 months ago she started sounding really congested when she breathes, only through the left nostril though. she has always done the reverse sneezing since she was a pup but now she is filled with mucus and her left nostril constantly drains. it doesnt bleed and it hasnt gotten worse, however she does have her good days and bad days, she looks very healthy, eats, drinks, loves walks and has normal functions. any suggestions. I realize that she is quite old for a dal. and the vets say that the x rays, and nasal flush will run 1000 to 1500 dollars and may still leave us scratching our heads.
thanks , Matt
Dear Matt,
It sounds like there is a choice that needs to be made. If we are going to try to make her better, then the best things are to get the culture and nasal flush with pathologist exam and imaging of the nasal sinuses are logical. I suppose one could take a less ideal medical approach and try some antibiotics to see if that helps. Digestive enzymes like Wobenzyme can sometimes help with nasal inflammation after a few weeks of use as a supplement to the antibiotics, under veterinary supervision.
If it is a money issue, then try to find a vet that will take Care Credit applications or will barter services. The Guide has a lot of other financial resources you can check in to as well.
If the choice is that you are opting to not treat her as because of her age, then that is a choice that can be made after appropriate life quality analysis.
https://www.dogcancerblog.com/blog/life-quality-in-dog-cancer-dr-dresslers-joys-of-life-scale/
So here it comes down to what is your choice, as a guardian?
Best,
D
Dear Dr. Dressler,
We have a 4 y/o Jack Russell/Chihuahua mix. He began growing a bump on his armpit/chest area with weird hair follicles. In June 09 we had it surgically removed because it was growing quite large. The biopsy came back benign. Two days ago we had him operated again because it was again large and hindering his walking. This time around the doctor had less luck and only removed 1/3 of the growth. He stated it had infiltrated too many muscles and was afraid to cause permanent damage. I know we will not have our dog operated on again, but don’t want to give up. I am desperately searching for an alternative to surgery. In what I have read they have mentioned radiation therapy. My vet stated that would not be an alternative. I can’t just give up. I need to know that I have looked into all possible alternatives. Can you please make any suggestions where I can find some answers?
I have a 10 yr old female daschund who has a fairly large lump where her front left leg connects. The vet said it was a fatty tumor. A little while has passed and i now notice she has several smaller lumps on her stomach. I’m not sure what they are, I’m worried. Can you help me?
Dear Sara,
In the same way that if you awoke one morning and found a lump on your body you would likely get it checked out, the best thing to do is bring your dog to the vet. Could be nothing, could be something. No, doxy would not be a typical reason for a single lump. A local vaccine reaction could be though. Regardless, get it checked.
Best,
Dr D
Dear Dr.,
My story is kind of different, but the same. My 1yr old yellow lab has been taking doxycycline for a week & I just noticed a little lump the size of a quarter is protruding from her upper back leg. There is no tick or bug present. Could this lump possibly be from the medication? She was also recently at the vet & got a series of shots. Could this be a cause of the lump? It is soft & does not bother her. I am so worried! Please help!
Hi DR D. I just wanted to thank you for the information you provide, I’m from South Africa. We have a 14 year old fox terrierpom mix. She really is the life and soul of our family. She first had a lump on her tummy, the vet said it was non cancerous. Its grown to the size of an orange now. she then got a lump on her back, its grown to the size of an apple now.
Considering her age, surgery to remove those might not be an opinion. She is still fully alert etc just gets tired often. Is there any advice you could give us. She really is the most special “person” in our family, the glue that holds us together.
Dear Rhea,
the difficulty with this is that I am not sure what you are dealing with. Were the lumps tested and confirmed to be non cancerous? You need the data to make decisions. That is step one. After you know what you are dealing with you can make decisions more clearly. Get the aspirates done if they are not done yet…
D
My 12 1/2 yr old beagle has been diagnosed with a tumor on his spleen. This was done by our vet without an x-ray per my request. Blood work, exam and review of symptoms lead to the diagnosis. He began taking a steroid yesterday. In “researching” canine spleen tumors on-line, I’m finding that bloating and spleen tumor have many of the same symptoms – bloated abdomen, rapid breathing, not wanting to lay down, rapid weight loss. All of which my dog has. Are there any notable difference between the symptoms for each? My dog has had difficultly pooping and has peed in the house twice in 24hrs(not typical of him at all!), within the last month his pinna have thicken and curled(not a hematoma) on both ears. He began taking thyroid medication about 2 months ago for low thyroid. The vet said his heart and lungs sounded good, but blood tests showed anemia, very high white blood count and low red blood count. The clotting ability of his blood also measured low.
A spleen tumor seems logical, but my findings are causing me to second this. I would need to take my dog back to the vet to discuss this with the vet. Any information that you could provide would be most appreciated! Thank you!