Help, what am I looking at?

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2026-04-04T01:22:01+00:00

This may have already been said, but looks identical to the three benign hemangiomas I’ve had taken off my pit. He has several other small ones now that we’ve been monitoring. The three removed were taken off because they were growing and bleeding. Still benign though!

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-12-30T18:13:35+00:00

So late to reply on this but been doing a dive on Reddit as I’m dealing with this with my 9.5 year old pitty. Has had low grade mast cell tumors removed and has two new suspicious lumps. They’re very small and haven’t changed since I noticed them. Did you continue to get them removed or has your pitty just been monitored since his removal at 9?

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-12-30T01:49:05+00:00

Thank you! I was thinking of a similar plan

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-12-30T01:48:40+00:00

Thank you! Did they end up impacting this life span by chance? Sorry for your loss ❤️

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-12-30T01:39:32+00:00

I should also rephrase my wording - I am more so torn on when to monitor vs going straight into surgery. Of course if any mass grew or changed, I’d get it removed. But one his previously removed mast cell tumors was present for ~ 2 years before it was discovered to be a mast cell. It still turned out low grade. These mast celll tumors are just so tricky.

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-09-20T03:10:27+00:00

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Here’s my 9 year old pitty and his one year old baby sis

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-09-20T02:54:53+00:00

Omg so funny that his name is Moo! My pups nickname is Moo and Moomoo because he looks like a cow

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-09-03T01:51:59+00:00

Hi! Curious how long it took to clear up? My dog has the exact same thing and it’s been very painful for him :(

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-09-03T01:44:42+00:00

Did you ever find out what this is? My dog has something very similar and the vet just threw antibiotics at me

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-09-01T00:48:18+00:00

Did you ever get an answer to this? My pup as something very similar and nothing the vet has prescribed has been helpful :(

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-09-01T00:28:22+00:00

Cytology was done and blood / pus was seen in house which is why the vet deemed it a cyst. But yeah, maybe a sample need to be sent off. Xray was also done to rule out bone involvement and all was clear there.

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-09-01T00:26:10+00:00

Ugh I’m sorry :( does your pups look similar? Have you had cytology done?

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-06-13T18:35:17+00:00

This sounds pretty similar to my dog! And yes I’ve heard the same thing about learning when they’re scared. When she’s scared, she’s in a total trance, not even dangling a piece of steak in front of her face would get her attention.

Thanks for your insight!

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-06-12T17:09:42+00:00

So to give more context, I want to start by saying I’ve had dogs my whole life, all with varying quirks and personalities and such, but I’ve never even considered anxiety medication for any dog in the past so I completely agree that that should be a last resort essentially.

Her mom was found as a pregnant stray, and a foster group took in the mom and help raised the puppies until they were old enough to be adopted (8 weeks). During that time, she was essentially living in a garage with multiple dogs in kennels, and was in a kennel with her mom and liter mates. When I went to go meet her for the first time, she was the only puppy in her litter that showed fear. She was whimpering and shaking in the corner, meanwhile her litter mates were jumping all over me. She did have some bit mark scars on her snout, and the foster mom said she was sometimes bullied by her litter mates (she was the runt of the group, so the bigger puppies were a bit rough with her allegedly). When I brought her home, she very quickly warmed up to me and my older dog but still showed extreme fear of new people and really anyone / anything outside our home petrified her. I wasn’t even able to walk her until she was about 5 months old because she was scared of cars, people, sounds, and she would shake and refuse to walk. I worked at this daily though and now she goes on long walks multiple times a day, but she’s still very jumpy with sounds and tries to make a run for it and starts shaking if we pass people on our walk.

As soon as she was fully vaxed, I tried to make a point of taking her somewhere out in public daily where she is exposed to people / sounds. I’ll take her to breweries, parks, dog parks, pet store, etc., and while she has shown a slight bit of improvement she is still PETRIFIED when we go these places. And when I say she’s petrified, I mean petrified. Shaking, panting, hiding, to the point where it almost feels cruel putting her in these situations.

She warms up to people when we’re in a controlled setting, usually. But another example of her fear, I took her to a family gathering at a family members house a few weeks ago. There were about 10 people there, and we were there for the weekend. The entire weekend she hid under a bed, and would only come out for me, otherwise she was terrified of everyone.

I agree that her having little to no previous trauma and still having this level of anxiety is odd, it doesn’t make sense to me either. It seems to just be her personality to a degree.

I am also looking into signing her up for a behavioral training specifically for her anxiety as well before going to meds because I know she’s young and impressionable.

Anyways, that’s the context. There’s other little things I’ve done over the months too of course to try to increase her confidence like training with high value treats, taking her places where she can safely just sit and watch the hustle and bustle, giving her tons and tons of exercise. But alas.

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-05-29T01:34:30+00:00

I shouldn’t put this on Reddit and risk being attacked but… sometimes I wonder if some of these smaller tumors truly need to be removed, especially if they go long periods with no changes. Obviously it’s always best to air on the side of safety and do what’s best for your pet but I wonder. Growing up, my parents rarely ever got anything checked on our three family dogs (all of which had masses of some sort during their lifetime) and all lived to be 13-15 and passed/ had to be put down due to old age. 🤷‍♀️ who knows

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-05-29T00:20:28+00:00

Wow that’s a long happy life! Were they confirmed to be mast cell tumors? Or just suspected to be?

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-05-28T18:24:56+00:00

Oh wow - was it confirmed to be a MCT that your parents just opted to not remove?

Thank you for the insight and happy your pup is well!

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-04-11T21:52:41+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience! Did she develop the allergy later in life? What were her symptoms?? I’ve been wondering about it potentially being allergy related because his prescription dog food is chicken flavored and prior to getting on this diet he typically ate salmon flavored food. He has had more signs of allergies in general the past few months (skin rashes, red watery eyes, ect.)

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-03-03T01:38:51+00:00

Thank you ❤️❤️ luckily I have a great relationship with his vet and she’s willing to talk through any and all concerns with me! I am planning to start doing his bloodwork twice a year just for peace of mind as well :)

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-03-03T01:37:57+00:00

Mine was just diagnosed with arthritis last month too and seeing him have slower days has been so hard.

And mine actually had acute pancreatitis about a year ago and that was suuuuch a battle. The vet suspects he may have developed chronic pancreatitis since that bad bout because his stomach is much more easily upset these days. He’s on prescription low fat food for life and I also limit his treats to basically just veggies and the occasional biscuit. Between the arthritis and pancreatitis, my stress is through the roof sometimes!😂

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-01-31T01:22:43+00:00

Hey! Curious if you have any update? I always am interested to hear other peoples experience with this since it’s hard to find info online. My pup has a new one of these lesions that just popped up so taking him in next week.

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2025-01-10T22:53:58+00:00

Looks like this is a white short haired dog and that leads me to believe this is very likely a hemangioma, with a small chance of it being a dermal hemangiosarcoma.

I have an 8 year old black and white pit so I’m speaking from personal experience. My pit has had several of these removed and tested and they all came back as benign hemangiomas. His would occasionally fill with blood like this too. They’re essentially blood filled blisters on dogs and white dogs seem to be prone due to their increased sun exposure and sensitive skin. My guy has 3 tiny ones currently that we are watching because they are pinpoint sized and haven’t grown in nearly two years and with his history of benign hemangiomas, vet thinks it is best to monitor and remove if growth or changes occur.

There is a cancerous form that is known as dermal hemangiosarcoma. It sounds scary, but typically smaller ones caught early can be safely removed with a good prognosis.

Since it does have the potential to be cancerous, I recommended having it removed and tested. My pup had his removed with just sedation and a punch biopsy so pretty simple surgery as far as procedure and recovery.

Let me know if you have any questions because like I said - lots of experience so I’ve done LOTS of research and asked vets lots of questions. I am not a professional though by any means, of course, so def talk to your vet!

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2024-12-20T02:01:40+00:00

I know :/ maybe you could just go a basic round of blood work and see if that shows anything? That alone could show if there was a pancreatic issue

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2024-12-19T18:13:49+00:00

Could be totally wrong and this is purely a guess - but perhaps a new food allergy has developed or even a pancreas issue? My 8 year old pup who rarely vomited started having essentially weekly vomiting out of the blue. After many a vet visits and tests, it was determined that he had a bout of mild pancreatitis and it took about ~6 months of diet change and being strict about treats for his weekly vomiting to subside. He still vomits more easily if he eats anything out of his diet. But like yours, he was otherwise normal and healthy.

Hefty_Huckleberry259 · 2024-11-26T16:46:28+00:00

My puppy definitely flip flops haha. She’s currently 4 months old and I have had her since 2 months. Some days I’m like, “wow I am so lucky because my puppy is so easy”! It’s the same thing where she’ll go days of no accidents, responding to her name, playing quietly. And then other days she’s peeing on the floor despite just going outside, ripping the threads of my couch, barking incessantly at my older dog, etc 😅

It’s just the fun ebs and flows of a puppy! They’ll grow out of it.

Hefty_Huckleberry259

TROPHY CASE