I hear ya, Hon. Had you & Alice on my mind a lot of the day.
This morning I took a dog to the vet to check out a mass growing under the loose skin behind her armpit. She’s fairly young & I don’t have a lot of fears over the surgery scheduled two weeks hence, but she’s also too big to lose within the house in the meantime. :o)
When your buddy shows up it can be a 2-thawed mice celebration for sure!
I had a coworker who raised baby snakes for sale. IIRC, he raises non-exotics til they’re large enough to be sold to pet stores, plus the feeder mice for them.
99.9 % chance it’s a harmless lipoma.
They’re self-limiting in size and that depends on where they pop up.
Under her armpit is the best place.
Izzy got hers there when she was 2 and it stayed the same size until she died.
Minny had one on her ribs which left it unlimited room to expand and it was half-a-tennis ball big at 13.
If you can take it between your fingers and roll it around, it’s a 100% bet.
The ones that pop up on muscle mass tend to be more tightly attached.
It’s just a blob of harmless fat.
Have your vet make SURE it’s not a lipoma before you resort to surgery.
If it is, and it’s cut out, others will almost certainly pop up later.
It’s got to do with cholesterol metabolism and tends to be hereditary.
A friend’s dog had so many he looked like a sack of doorknobs by the time he died of old age.