Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 9/30/2008

Question
my dog had a lump on the right side of  his neck about 8 months ago. i took him to the vet and they drained it and said there was a possible injury to the neck that caused the lump. Where the lump was the hair never grew back. About a month ago he got another lump on the left side of his neck.i applied heat and cold packs to the site and the swelling went down. The bump arose again about two weeks ago. I took him to the vet and he wasnt running a temp so that ruled out an abcess. They gave him an antibiotic and steroid shot as well as putting him on amoxil and said the meds should take care of the lump. If not to bring him back in for a possible biopsy. When i called the vet today to let them know the lump has slightly went down but still there, I spoke to another vet inside the hospital and she said it could possibly be a lymphnode that needed drained, if not they would need to biopsy it. Im a little confused. Why does he keep getting these? What do you think it is? Please let me know. Any advice would help

Answer
Sometimes when dogs do not respond to the things we expect them to, we need to know what disease is going on.  The biopsy lets the pathologist give your vet an idea as to what tissue it is, whether it is normal or abnormal, and if it is infected deeply.