[Dailydrool] Black cysts

[Val Brewer]

Both of my hounds have had occasional subcutaneous cysts. Our vet usually says, "Leave them alone. They're no problem". Recently Bo had a small cyst that was black and looked for all the world like a tick. Our vet said, "Don't leave that one alone--it could be a hemangiosarcoma (blood vessel tumor)--that one needs to be removed and biopsied". I looked it up on the Internet and the pictures looked just like what Bo had. Hemangiosarcomas sometimes arise internally (often on the spleen or liver) and these are often undetected until they are large and are often fatal. However, they also apparently sometimes appear on the skin externally, and these are like "black moles" on people--if excised early they do not spread and are almost 100% curable, but if left to their own devises can metastasize to more serious systemic cancers. Or at least this is what I was told and read on the internet. We had Bo's black cyst excised--unfortuntely it burst during excision
 and there was not enough material to biopsy for certain diagnosis, but even so, the odds are that if it was in fact a hemangiosarcoma, it is now cured. I am not a veterinarian, just a pet owner. But if what I was told is true, and the Internet seems to agree, I'd have any "black" cysts that resemble ticks examined by a vet. Val, Bo, and Harley


      
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