Forgive me if this has been posted, I did do a search and could not find a realted topic....anyway here is my story. I am feeling really frustrated so forgive me if I vent a little.

I have a 7 year old Chocolate Lab who about this time last year developed a small mass on this right side just behind his front right leg. We took him to the vet and had it aspirated twice and was told it was just a fat lump. About a month later the mass had grown for quickly and huge that it looked like he had swallowed a soccer ball...so off to the vet we went again, actually a different one as we were not entirely satisfied with the one we had for other reason, and went on a referral. Anyway he knew that this required a specialist and admitted it was out of his realm, which I can respect at least he did not keep us coming back when he knew there was nothing he could suggest. He did do a bunch of the x-rays and blood tests there so we could take the results with us to the specialist.

So off to the so called specialists we go. They claim to have never seen such a mass before and of course a biopsy is ordered and done. A few days later the results come in saying he has bone cancer and that there is no treatment and we should anticipate his death. Well devistation naturally set in and as we went home to decide on our beloved pets fate. We had to go back to see the cancer specialist the next day and he confirmed it once again from the CT scan he showed us. Upon leaving the vet met us and said he was still not happy with the result of the biopsy as he did not recall sending in any bone fragments and wanted to have to Colorado lab retest the speciman. Well low and behold they had mixed up our dogs results with another dog.....anger and releif set in. I thought vetrinarians were suppsed treat animals as better than that. Anyway they could not then give us an answer as to what was wrong with our dog. He gave us some Chepalix (?) and it seemed to work as the mass went away within a week. Well here we are about a year later and the mass is back...and I am frustrated once again and not sure who and where to turn. He has not eaten in two and a half days, drinks constantly, foaming at the mouth. Has anyone ever had a dog with a mass with these symptoms or similar? What was the diagnosis you recieved. I am so frustrated!

Thank you for listening and any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am taking him back to the vet tomorrow but his doctor is away for 2 weeks so I have to see someone new and repeat this all over again, but maybe they will have some new information for me....one can hope..fingers crossed!

[Yogi]

This sounds similar to a mass cell tumor. They can be removed but generally are prone to coming back and not always in the same place. They can grow quite large in a short period of time.

Cancer is the most likely culprit in a situation like this where the growth grows quite quickly and does regrow at the same spot.