Older dog with fatty tumors

Fatty tumors, or lipomas, are a very common age-related manifestation. They are not serious, and usually should not be removed unless they are causing a physical problem due to their location, or if they are rapidly growing or changing (and are not improving i response to the homeopathic remedy). In Western medicine there is no good explanation for why these (or other) tumors grow. In Eastern medicine however, they are considered an area of "entangled Qi" due to improper flow of energy through the channels. There are Chinese and Western herbs for straightening out this energy flow problem.

One thing of which we can be sure is that nothing happens with the body unless it is somehow "necessary" to the body's function. I would regard these, as I do any skin manifestation or tumor forming, as a release mechanism for disease energy - a vital part of the healing response to deep-seated dysfunction. So they are a good thing - and also less likely to form if insults are addressed in a timely fashion through systemic homeopathy when the animal is young. Things of this nature can happen even in young dogs, but generally "clean" husbandry, with appropriate food and freedom from medical insult will also minimize these disease expressions. They are, however, benign, harmless, and actually beneficial to the animal. I wouldn't remove them unless all avenues of cure have been employed, and chronic disease symptoms mitigated, and/or they are really in the way of lifestyle, getting banged up or bothered. In other words, what Dr. Jeff said.

ginny