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My senior dog has swollen neck glands, biopsy inconclusive. What next?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Dachshund miniature | Male | neutered | 16 lbs

Age 12 dog . Swollen glands on both sides in neck . Vet did needle biopsy to see cells but results were inconclusive. My dog acts normal -no symptoms . Vet said maybe lymphoma. Glands got a little bigger but no change last few months. Vet said could surgically remove glands & do biopsy . But I am undecided to put my 12 year old through it .

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2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Andrea M. Brodie, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on July 6th, 2018

I would recommend removal or at least a biopsy of the lymphnodes (where a little piece of the lymph node is removed). This can be done under geeneral anesthesia, which nowadays is very safe or, if your dog is very quiet, may be done under sedation and a local anesthesia (I would prefer the general anesthesia though). This could indeed be lymphoma or it could be reactive lymph nodes, swelling because they are filtering out bacteria and other material that the body does not deem healthy. Should it be lymphoma and you do not want chemotherapy , your dog can indeed be made comfortable with steroids. Rather than hoping and guessing whether it is lymphoma or not, the biopsy, whether done by taking the whole lymphnode or just part of it, will give you a diagnosis and then you can deal with the disease.

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    Answered By Daniel Fonza, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on May 20th, 2018

    Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. For more information and better diagnostic quality, then removing the nodule or getting a better sample under sedation / anesthesia would be best. As long as everything else (blood testing and physical exam) are not concerning then Spike should be fine to have this procedure done. If you do not plan on putting Spike through a major surgery to remove cancer or have him go through chemotherapy, then this would solely be for your own knowledge and not for treatment, so the decision is up to you on whether or not you have this done. I've had some cases where this was the same decision by the owner and we decided to treat the dog with steroids, antibiotics and pain medications to keep the dog comfortable until the time came. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. Please take the time to mark this question as helpful or not as it helps us to improve on the quality of our answers to other pet owners. Thank you kindly!

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