We found a lump on our dog paw a few months ago. It was very small so we didn't take much notice of it and thought perhaps she had been stung. After about 2 months we noticed it had started growing so decided to take her to the vet. The vet looked at it and thought it was most likely fatty tissue but said it ought to be removed because of its position on the paw meant that there was little skin available to stitch together and if it grew any bigger it could be a problem.
So in she went the following day - as usual very excited and happy until we had to walk away and leave her. The vet phoned us later that day to say the operation had gone well and she had been surprised at how large the lump was underneath the skin. Fortunately she had been able to remove the whole of the lump which was enclosed within a sac. They sent it off to the lab to be analysed just to be sure it wasn't anything nasty.
About half an hour later the phone went again and it was the vet to say that our dog had woken up and was being very vocal about how she wanted to go home! I could hear her in the background crying. We collected her and she was still really dopey from the aneasthetic but she wouldn't settle when we got her back until she had had something to eat - which wasn't allowed until the evening! You know, she is so greedy that even though she was dead tired she would not let herself fall asleep!
Anyway the results came back fine but what they found was that the sac contained millions of really nasty bacteria and if it had burst at any stage our dog would have ended up with a very serious skin infection. I was quite shocked. So if she ever has a lump again I shall definitely go to the vet straight away and not wait to see if it grows.