Accepted Answer

Hello,

There are many causes these types of lumps. The lump is due to some type of fluid accumulation.

Lumps generally fall into two categories:

Benign Lumps (not cancer) - characteristics of these lumps are no or slow growth. It is possible that they will not change or take years to change.

Malignant Lumps (cancerous) - These lumps may grow quickly and spread into the skin.

Your Veterinarian will look at the physical characteristics of the lump to determine a preliminary diagnosis. They will look at the location, duration, firmness, and size of the lump. To be sure of a diagnosis of the lump the veterinarian will take a sample by using a needle to remove some of lump for study in a laboratory.

I suspect that this is a simple fatty tumor which are fairly common in dogs and are not cancerous. Depending on the location the vet may want to remove it or simply monitor it. Though it must be looked at by your vet because there is always the chance that it could be a cancerous tumor. It can also be a infection in one of her glands as this is common as well. Swimming in a dirty pond could have caused infection to set into one of the glands, so this is important to check out, make sure you inform your vet that she was in the pond.

Walter

Expert:	Walter
Pos. Feedback:	99.7 %
Accepts:
Answered:	10/12/2009

Breeder

Breeder and pet health consultant. Have spent a number of years with dog rescue, training and health