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- What is a hormonal tumor?
- What Types of Hormonal Tumors Affect Dogs?
- How to treat hormonal tumors in dogs?
Veterinary science has advanced a lot and this constant progress makes it possible to accurately detect and understand all the pathologies that affect our pets, how to treat them, what is their prognosis and know if there is any method to prevent them.
This increased knowledge can lead to a false perception that dogs get sick more and more easily, but it doesn't work that way and, in a way, we should feel relieved to know what to do when our dog gets sick. In other articles, we've already talked about cancer in dogs, but today this PeritoAnimal article will be exclusively dedicated to hormonal tumors in dogs.
What is a hormonal tumor?
To properly understand this concept, we must begin by understanding that the term "tumor" designates a abnormal growth from a mass that, in a natural and, in principle, physiological way, was already in your puppy's body.
Don't think that any tumor is cancer, some tumors are benign, which means that they have no risk of metastases (expansion) and that the biggest problem they can cause is the pressure exerted on adjacent organs and tissues, as well as the discomfort and inconvenience that this can cause in your pet.
However, other tumors represent much more than an abnormal growth of a mass. In this case, we are talking about malignant tumors or cancerous tumors and, in this case, there is a risk of metastases - these cancer cells do not die and can reproduce, migrating to other tissues.
In medical nomenclature, these two types of tumors have distinct names. Check out the definitions to understand this all-important difference:
- adenoma: Benign (non-cancerous) tumor of glandular tissue.
- Carcinoma: Malignant (cancerous) tumor that forms from tissue that lines organs.
A hormonal tumor can be benign or malignant, but the characteristic that differentiates it is the fact that it is directly linked to certain hormones, that is, this tumor contains hormone receptors and the more hormonal you pick up, the more it grows, regardless of its nature.
What Types of Hormonal Tumors Affect Dogs?
The three most common types of hormonal tumors in dogs are as follows:
- Sebaceous perianal adenoma
- Sebaceous perianal adenocarcinoma
- Sebaceous perianal adenocarcinoma of apocrine glands
By the nomenclature, it is possible to conclude that one of these hormonal tumors is malignant. However, what was indicated first is benign, although it can also cause discomfort because it is located around the anus, making it difficult to evacuate the stool and causing bleeding.
These tumors usually affect old male dogs that have not been neutered. This is because they depend on hormone levels, and castration is one of the best ways to prevent them. Check out other benefits of canine neutering here.
Yet, the females are not free this problem, although the only ones that can present perianal adenomas are those that were sterilized by ovarioisterectomy (surgical extraction of the uterus and ovaries).
How to treat hormonal tumors in dogs?
Initially, the veterinarian must take a biopsy, that is, extract a small sample of the affected tissue to examine it and, thus, determine whether the cells found in that tissue are cancerous or not. This will allow him to know the nature of the tumor.
Whenever possible, a surgical extraction. This is an aggressive surgery in the sense that all edges must be clean so that the tumor does not reappear.
When the tumor is cancerous, it is necessary to examine its dependence on hormone levels accurately and, in addition to surgery, other methods such as chemotherapy can be used, so that the cancer does not recur. The precision of the treatment, its duration and the prognosis depends on the particular case of each dog.
This article is for information purposes only, at PeritoAnimal.com.br we are not able to prescribe veterinary treatments or perform any type of diagnosis. We suggest that you take your pet to the veterinarian in case it has any type of condition or discomfort.