- Location
- Canberra, Australia
A couple of weeks ago I felt a lump above Obi’s left eye so we made a vet appointment for a couple of days later. The lump was the size of a very very small pea (I can’t think of another small round thing…maybe a large sago ball??) and was fur covered and a bit scabby looking. Going through photos on my phone it was apparent that something had been brewing for a couple of weeks, because I could see a small dark patch there in pics. The day after we found it it had become bigger, so we were pretty keen for the vet appointmen!
The vet took Obi off (i waited in the car park) and did a FNA then came back to tell me about it and show me pics of the slides under the microscope. She was able to rule out a mast cell tumour (which is good because they can spread..) but it was definitely some other kind of ‘round cell’ tumour and a rapidly growing one at that (there were quite a few cells in the process of division on the slides). She said that we needed to sent it off to the lab to get a better idea of what it was. Even though it was close to his eye she said we’d be able to remove it if it came to that.
The process of poking the tumour to get the sample made it a bit cranky, and it got bigger and redder and scabbier. Pics below! It actually looks heaps better in the pics than it did in real life…
We got the results the week after and it was good news - 90% chance of being a histiocytoma. This is an immune mediated kind of tumour, and it can actually disappear on its own after a few months. So the vet said that the best thing to do was nothing at this stage, and to wait and see what it did. She said that there was no risk to waiting and it was better to avoid an op if possible. That was about a week ago and we’re very happy that it is indeed already becoming smaller. Now it just looks like a scab, but without so much swelling under and around it. So that’s great!
A couple of things to note that might be helpful for others who come across this type of tumour - Obi’s histiocytoma looks nothing like all the Google-able images and descriptions of histiocytomas, which are all about smooth, hairless, raised, discrete button-like lumps. The descriptions do say that the tumours can be ulcerated (ie. weeping, raw, scabby) and that‘s the only thing that fits. Also, when we first found the lump we put some antibiotic steroid cream on it, which turned out not to be an ideal thing to do, the reason being that the steroid component can inhibit the immune response which is trying to get rid of the tumour. Sometimes these lumps can become infected (e.g. if they are getting scratched at) but if that happened then antibiotics would be used, but Obi’s isn’t infected, despite looking pretty angry at times. Luckily he isn’t scratching at it.
So that’s Obi’s latest lump story so far
The vet took Obi off (i waited in the car park) and did a FNA then came back to tell me about it and show me pics of the slides under the microscope. She was able to rule out a mast cell tumour (which is good because they can spread..) but it was definitely some other kind of ‘round cell’ tumour and a rapidly growing one at that (there were quite a few cells in the process of division on the slides). She said that we needed to sent it off to the lab to get a better idea of what it was. Even though it was close to his eye she said we’d be able to remove it if it came to that.
The process of poking the tumour to get the sample made it a bit cranky, and it got bigger and redder and scabbier. Pics below! It actually looks heaps better in the pics than it did in real life…
We got the results the week after and it was good news - 90% chance of being a histiocytoma. This is an immune mediated kind of tumour, and it can actually disappear on its own after a few months. So the vet said that the best thing to do was nothing at this stage, and to wait and see what it did. She said that there was no risk to waiting and it was better to avoid an op if possible. That was about a week ago and we’re very happy that it is indeed already becoming smaller. Now it just looks like a scab, but without so much swelling under and around it. So that’s great!
A couple of things to note that might be helpful for others who come across this type of tumour - Obi’s histiocytoma looks nothing like all the Google-able images and descriptions of histiocytomas, which are all about smooth, hairless, raised, discrete button-like lumps. The descriptions do say that the tumours can be ulcerated (ie. weeping, raw, scabby) and that‘s the only thing that fits. Also, when we first found the lump we put some antibiotic steroid cream on it, which turned out not to be an ideal thing to do, the reason being that the steroid component can inhibit the immune response which is trying to get rid of the tumour. Sometimes these lumps can become infected (e.g. if they are getting scratched at) but if that happened then antibiotics would be used, but Obi’s isn’t infected, despite looking pretty angry at times. Luckily he isn’t scratching at it.
So that’s Obi’s latest lump story so far
I’ll let you know how things go 
