Thought it wouldn't hurt to ask for some extra prayers today..My boy is having surgery today to remove a Mast Cell Tumor I found on him last week. Soon as I found it I took him in for it to be looked at. Hopefully I found it soon enough before it spread. I need to pray that it is Stage 1. He's my baby!
This forum has been very helpful so Xtra Prayers would be great!!!
Thanks

Prayers here.

Prayers go your way for a positive outcome.

Here also. Hoping for a good outcome.

Shelby, Prayers for your boy. Please let us know ho he makes out.

Definitely praying for you and yours.

One of mine had a grade 2 mast cell removed last month, and my vet shared a June 2011 article about mast cells that was very encouraging. 96% of the dogs in the study with grade 1 and 2 tumors had very good outcomes with only surgery and wide margins were not necessary to get the good outcomes.

Prayers sent for you both. My JRT Briar that had numerous Grade I and II's lived a good long life with them.

Prayers sent your way for your special boy! My best girlie had two Grade 2 Mast Cell tumor removed when she was three years old. One was on the top of her head and the other on her carpus. We were able to get nice broad margins and never had another Mast Cell again. She went on to earn a UD,JH and WC and died at the old age of 13 & 1/2 years old. She had a wonderful life....I hope you'll have the same with your boy....Let us know how he does!

Sending good wishes for your boy.
One of my seniors had 2 removed from the same area when she was 3 years old. One was a flat hairless lump about the size of a dime, the other one the vet found under the skin when he was doing the surgery. Clean margins were not possible as it would have meant invading the body cavity. Vet showed me how to do weekly finger massage to check for new lumps. Six months later while checking her over , I found one not as big as a pea deep in her shoulder muscle and that was surgically removed as well. All came back from path as Grade II.

She's now 12 years old and we just had one removed about 6 months ago from the side where those first 2 were. I didn't have that one sent off to path so don't know what grade it was.

Be sure to ask your vet if he gives an antihistamine before the surgery.

Prayers being sent your way from me as well. I just had a Grade 1 removed from my 11 year old female a couple of months ago. It was geoing over her eye. She was at the risk of losing her eye sight. The Vet got the majority of it and he told me like Kate said , there is a low incdence of a return after surgery. I am keeping my fingers crossed to have her with me for a few more years..... Please let us know your outcome on your very special love dog?

My sweet old girl had a stage II malignant mast cell tumor removed from the inside of her right elbow when she was nine years old. She lived to be almost 13. She died of something totally unrelated to the tumor. I'm keeping you and your boy in my prayers.

Well My Baby is doing better today. He made it through the surgery fine. The tumor was sent out to pathology to grade it, will have results in about 6 days. Vet was not able to go very deep because of the location, it was located right behind the opening of his penis. Hoping for a great outcome my baby is only 4years Old...
Kate: thanks for the info on outcomes..
Valwhalen: Yes my vet had him on antihistamine and Pecid before surgery and continuing through this weekend. I did get him to eat alittle last night. And this morning he was wagging like normal!!:)
Thanks Again for all the prayers and great information. Will let everyone know how the results come back.
V

Prayers for your sweet boy.

Well Shelby this is interesting because my parents' Lab has a mast cell tumor on his penis and it was discovered quite by accident when he was being catheterized for another surgery. They ruptured the tumor and he bled like crazy...that's the story anyway. Long story short...the surgery was cancelled for the other problem and my parents opted to take him to a holistic vet for both issues. It's been 3 years and Cornell had him good as dead. He's almost 11. Their dog has allergies , so he's almost always on Benadryl. Also he takes all sorts of stuff the holistic vet prescribes. It's quite a regimen, but he looks so good! No hot spots, or any other obvious mast cell tumors. I hope your dog has a good outcome too.

Shelby, I'm glad to hear that your boy is doing well after surgery. At one time vets thought that mast cell tumors on the face and groin area had a poorer prognosis than those on other areas of the body. But the article that my vet gave me said that they have as good a prognosis as other areas. The article was specifically addressing the issue of wide margins (including deep) and found that margins did not have to be wide to be clear. I can't seem to find the article now, but you might want to ask your vet about it. I know that it appeared in June. I think the article might give you some comfort. It certainly did me.

Let us know when you get the path report. Keep you and your boy in my prayers. Kate

Found an abstract of the article:

Abstract
Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association
June 1, 2011, Vol. 238, No. 11, Pages 1464-1469
doi: 10.2460/javma.238.11.1464

Association of histologic tumor characteristics and size of surgical margins with clinical outcome after surgical removal of cutaneous mast cell tumors in dogs


Objective—To evaluate the relationship between width and depth of surgical margins, amount of edema within and around the tumor, and degree of demarcation between the tumor and surrounding tissues with the clinical outcome following surgical removal of cutaneous mast cell tumors (cMCTs) in dogs.

Design—Retrospective cohort study.

Animals—100 dogs with 115 resectable cMCTs.

Procedures—Information about the dogs' clinical outcomes following cMCT removal was obtained from primary care veterinarians. Histologic sections of excised tumors were assessed retrospectively for tumor grade and measurement of the narrowest lateral and deep margins of nonneoplastic tissue excised with the tumors; edema within the tumor and surrounding tissues was assessed as minimal, moderate, or severe. Tumors were classified as poorly, moderately, or well demarcated on the basis of the degree of mast cell infiltration into the adjoining connective tissue.

Results—Following tumor excision (with no additional postsurgery treatment), 96 dogs had no local recurrence or metastatic disease for 27 to 31 months; 4 metastatic disease–related deaths (dogs with grade II or III tumors) occurred within 3 to 9 months. Histologically, mean lateral and deep surgical margins around the tumors were 8.9 and 5.3 mm, respectively. No recurrence of tumor or metastatic disease developed following excision with lateral margins ≥ 10 mm and deep margins ≥ 4 mm. Edema and degree of demarcation were not correlated with outcome.

Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Results suggested that most grade I and II cMCTs in dogs can be successfully treated by complete surgical removal with margins smaller than those currently recommended.
Full Text PDF (347 KB) PDF Plus (362 KB)

Thanks for all the xtra prayers and all the great information. He is doing well, incision looks great and definately got his "WAG" back..I hope to get the path reports back by Friday. I will give an update as soon as I know.
Thans again for all the help with this.