My old dog has a lump. Should I biopsy it or go straight to surgery?

Question

My 12 year old, Golden Mix, has a small lump. I took her to the vet and he wants to do surgery. I asked him if he could just biopsy it. He said that would aggravate it and make it “mad”. I thought surgery was jumping the gun. Pet's info: Dog | Golden Retriever | Female | spayed

Vanessa Yeager DVM MPH · Accepted Answer

Hi and thanks for posting! If it is a small mass, taking a biopsy may be hard to do. They do need a fairly good and complete piece of tissue to properly evaluate it. Sometimes if small masses are concerning from appearance to your veterinarian, they may recommend just removing it completely and sending off the tissue to a pathologist for evaluation. I hope this helps!

My old dog has a lump. Should I biopsy it or go straight to surgery?

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