Archie has turned into a bit of a lumpy dog in his old age. Over the past few years he’s had about 10 lumps pop up. Most of them have been fatty tumors ( lipomas ), which we don’t do anything about other than a needle biopsy to determine they are indeed lipomas. He did have a couple that looked a bit suspicious though, and those had to be removed. (They turned out to be benign.)

Even though Archie’s never had a malignant tumor, I always have them checked out. I’d rather be a little on the paranoid side and know for sure that they’re nothing to worry about.

When Archie first started getting the tumors I could keep them straight, but after he had four or five of them I’d start thinking, “is that one new?” I think we may have even had the vet check one tumor twice. So now I keep a chart of every lump I find on him – it includes a notation of where it is, when we had it looked at, and the result. (Lydia has a chart too, and she has malignant and benign ones noted.)

I have enough stuff packed into my brain without trying to keep a snapshot of lumps in there! I sure would hate to rely on my memory and end up missing a dangerous one because I thought it had already been checked out. My vet office has charts for Archie & Lydia too, which means whoever sees my dogs can see their tumor history at a glance. And, of course, the chart can be used to keep track of other ailments besides lipomas – surgeries, injuries, bites, etc.

If you want a copy of the chart I use for Archie, here you go . And here’s a chart for cats . They’re courtesy of Pet Tech .

My lumpy dog is asking for dinner. I must obey!