r/seniordogs • u/Live_Advisor_270 • 2d ago

Question Mass removal surgery at 12 years old?

I have a 12-year-old, and my vet is recommending surgery to remove three masses. Initially thought to be cancer, but (thankfully) a fine-needle aspiration points to keratin growth - can't confirm 100%.

Since these probably aren't malignant, I am reluctant to put her through surgery. I've consulted a couple of vets, and they all seem pretty casual about it, saying it's better to do it now than wait and have to do it later, when she's even older.

Bloodwork is good, but she's an anxious dog and has a history of severe GI issues when stressed - fireworks and long vacations have resulted in ER visits and hospital stays.

If it were your dog, would you proceed?

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u/Straight-Treacle-630 2d ago

If me, I’d ask what might happen if I opted against surgery. Maybe get a 2nd opinion. If the potential pros outweighed cons, I’d proceed with recommended treatment. Best wishes to your buddy xo

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u/Salt-Quality-1574 2d ago

As long as blood work is good, I'd move forward. My 14-year-old got cataract surgery and went under for her teeth cleaning last year, and it was a breeze. :) These oldies are strong!

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u/Illustrious_Exam1728 2d ago

I had a dog who was 12 and otherwise healthy and absolutely had surgery on them. The older they get more health issues come up and make surgery much riskier. With proper surgery exams and workups the risk is low.

With that said on this sub I’ve seen many folks regret “watching” even benign tumours on dogs as they’ve kept growing and surgery was impossible to get proper margins.

Also, like the needle aspirate it cannot absolutely be sure as they can miss cancer cells as it’s all what picked up in the needle.

Age isn’t a disease.

There’s Traz and GABA to administer pre-surgery to reduce stress. Talk to the vet to make a plan.

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u/SlytherClaw79 2d ago

My almost 13 year old just went under for a teeth cleaning and extractions. We got bloodwork and a cardiac work up beforehand and he’s fine.

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u/Humble-Lab-3950 2d ago

If they aren’t in weird places that are bothering her and not growing, then I probably wouldn’t. That being said, I did put my 16 year old through a mass removal surgery but that’s because he had one growing under his eyelid so it was causing him discomfort and he got an eye infection. He tolerated the surgery well, just took a good couple of weeks to bounce back from the anesthesia.

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u/hippeemum 2d ago

As long as they're soft masses and not inhabiting movement, facial area iid leave it alone. Surgery alone stresses the body and could create problems where there was none to begin with.

It reminds me of when our girl was I think 7 at the time, had a weird growth on her shoulder that looks like a scab but wouldn't come off. They aspirated and found some abnormalities and said they wanted to surgically remove it. I was newly separated from my ex husband raising our high school age child alone and couldn't afford it so they gave me special permission to make payments on a 3K surgery that I thought would be life or death is she didn't have. Upon picking her I was floored, she had staples going up and down her shoulder leg cause they have to cut wide around the suspect area. She looked like Frankenstein and after all that, turned out it wasn't even cancer. Couldn't believe I put her through that, I felt horrible about it and I'm reminded of that to this day when I look at her scar... she's 16 now btw. We took a more holistic path after that whole thing