My dog has a soft, movable chest lump. Should I get a second opinion?
Updated On September 23rd, 2025
Pet's info: Dog | Dachshund | Male | neutered | 6 years and 9 months old | 16 lbs
Hello,my dog has had a lump on his chest for about a year now. I took him to the vet to get it checked out and she said it is a benign cyst. I just describe the to her and she didn't feel over or anything. It's soft and not a perfect shaped bump,its not growing you can pick it up and move it around. I was concerned beacuse she didn't really look at it. It has not changed in shape or color. Do you think she was right? I was wondering if you knew what it could be. I wanted advise from another vet.
2 Answers
Most Helpful Answer
Published on March 11th, 2019
Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Typically, if a mass is not changing in size, and is soft and freely movable, most of these masses are benign and nothing to worry about. The only way to know for sure is for your veterinarian to sample some cells from the mass, either via a fine-needle aspirate, or with a larger biopsy and evaluate the cells under a microscope. Since it is small, soft, freely movable, and unchanged over the course of a year, your vet likely believes this mass is benign and feels comfortable having you monitor it at home. I hope this is helpful - best of luck with Oscar!
6Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Related Answers from Veterinarians
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Published on February 27th, 2017
This kind of lump/growth needs to be ideally assessed by your veterinarian to have a definitive and specific answer. Considering your description the mass could be a lipoma, which is a benign tumor, that can grow in size but does not tend to spread. Other differentials are anyway possible (for example an enlarged lymph node or a more sinister type of tumor). Usually there are two ways your vet can do that a part from examining it directly during physical examination. A biopsy can be taken under local or general anesthetic, otherwise a smaller sample through a fine needle can be aspirated (this technique is called FNA= fine needle aspiration). Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
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