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Yes, they can grow. My old lab had a benign fatty tumor on his abdomen off to the side of his penis that grew to a massive size. He also had a non-cancerous cyst (not a fatty tumor) on the top of his head that grew larger too. We didn't have the fatty tumor removed (he had others but the one near his penis was his big one) because it wasn't interfering with his ability to urinate. We did have the cyst on his head removed after a few years because it started to ooze and wasn't responding to more conservative treatments.
Can you grab ahold deep under it to get a feeling of if it's moveable with the skin or seems attached deep down inside? If it's movable and doesn't feel attached to something inside, it's usually an indication that it's benign. If it seems anchored deep, then you shouldn't avoid the vet but go to a different vet since the last one admitted to trying to rip you off. It feeling hard isn't as much of a concern if it is localized in the skin and it feels as if it can be moved around with the skin and isn't anchored deep inside to something.
Even being benign, the location of your dog's cyst is concerning because it's so close to his anus. That makes me wonder if it's a boil. Another concern is if it's wide enough under the tail that it's interferring with bowel movements via pressing against his rectum. If you grab under it you can feel how large it is under the skin to get an idea about that.
Don't let everyone give you a hard time about being conservative with treatment. I've heard of unnecessary fatty tumor surgeries going very badly with lots of bleeding for days afterwards. I'm thinking of one specifically posted on this forum a few years ago. I can link the thread if you'd like. It was sad because it's not medically necessary to remove fatty tumors unless one is interfering with mobility. Some people do it for aesthetics.
When my lab developed his first fatty tumor on his side, we stared at it for a month before having it tested---because we knew we wouldn't treat a dog for cancer. After a month, I decided "we'd want to know, at least." It turned out to be fatty. He developed many, many more lumps through the years, and we NEVER had another lump tested. He lived to the ripe old age of 17. He was probably 15 or 16 by the time we removed the one from the top of his head. I held off on that because I was worried about the anesthesia for him being so old, but no other non-surgical treatments worked so we finally had it cut off.
As for pricing, we were initially quoted $700-$1,000 to have the cyst on his head removed. Another vet at the same practice did it for $300, not only to save us money but because she felt it was safer to not put him under general anesthesia at his age. She sedated him instead. It was possible because it doesn't take long to remove a cyst. It's not extensive surgery. General anesthesia adds to the cost of surgery. If you can find a vet who will do it under sedation, you'll save money. IMO there needs to be a good reason to expose a dog to the risks of general anesthesia.
What breed dog? how old? you already said the lump is hard...you cannot mush it around with your fingers? does it hurt the dog to move it? how long since you first noticed it and how has it changed in size over that time?
Does anyone have any thoughts as to what this (attached photos) might be? FYI: I'm aware that the only way to know for sure is to biopsy, that you are most likely not a vet and will therefore only be making an educated guess, but I would appreciate your feedback nonetheless.
My current circumstances necessitate a very tight budget and my local vet loves to charge boatloads in unnecessary procedures by preying on people's worse case scenario fears. I think it will be helpful to combat against this wallet-sucking practice by having at least a surface-level amount of knowledge on the subject matter so I can at least ask the right questions to determine whether or not I'm getting snowballed. Thanks in advance folks.
That looks exactly like a sebaceous cyst our late girl had, and it was near the base of her tail, too. The one in your pics looks like it's getting ready to burst. Your vet can do that. Our girl's began to rupture at home and I finished it off for her. Gawd, that was an experience. Best to have the vet do it, then maybe pack it until the wound heals over. We didn't do that because our vet told us to wait to see if the cyst began to fill up again. Then our girl passed away from something else. But that wound was always dripping liquid and I was cleaning her butt a couple times a day.
The vet told us that is a tough spot for surgical removal because so many nerve endings come together right there.
The late Dash had quite a few bumps and lumps that we just watched and when I made the decission to take a family leave from work to stay with my mom who was on hospice care for cancer after visiting her for a week, I noticed the lump on his leg had suddenly grow about triple in size in a matter of days . I was planning to go back home on the weekend to get some things since I would be staying with my mom for who knew how long so I called my vet to ask if he could look at it while I was in town .He had me bring him in so I did. He was concerned with that rapid growth and said it should probably come off ASAP so I said Ok I will have my mom's vet take it off and he asked when I was leaving and when I told him in the evening he told me to leave Dash and he would take it off as he thought he could do it with a local so not have to knock him out, So that is what we did and it turns out it was not cancer but it did have some mile log name so some times even things that grow rapidly are not cancers.
Tumors....possibly cancerous. My boxer had them, and we had them removed. This was in 02....it was several hundred dollars...But he lived another 7-8 years, so it was worth it.
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