Benign fatty tumor on Chinno's neck (lipoma ?)

[Pixie66]

Hi all,

Chinno is quite fat (compared to his brother), but had always been like that. He is now about 6 years old. Recently he gained even more waight, and my daughter noticed he is "fatter on the left side of his neck". Vet confirmed, took a biopcy and said it looked like fat, and we decided to go ahead and send it to the lab, which confirmed: benign. It does not seem to bother Chinno and the Vet mentioned that if we want to surgically remove it, we can, but advised to monitor and come back in 6 months for a follow up. This is the first time we see this Vet. Is this the common practice (standard care protocol)? Do you have experiance with such tumors? What would YOU do? I am attaching the weight chart I maintain for both my Chins.

 

[Amethyst]

I've never had a fatty tumor on a chin, but I know with cats it's not uncommon for them to shrink and even go away on their own once they get down to a better weight.

I would look at their diet and make sure you aren't giving any treats or over feeding. That looks like quite a bit of weight gain there. Especially for chins that are overweight you don't want to be giving them extras in their diet, just 2 tb of good quality pellet only food (not one with extra junk food in it) and unlimited hay. Not all chins over eat when given unlimited pellets but some do, and even though some people don't want to believe it over eating will cause chins to become fat. I would also look at how much exercise they get, do they get regular playtime, and actually run around? Also do they have a proper (at least 15" diameter) wheel in the cage to run on?

 

[Pixie66]

Thank you, Amethyst! They do have a chinspin. They live in a 3 level CN cage (with extra shelves), run up and down all levels. No real excersize outside the cage, though. They get very little treats, mostly dried camomille flowers and some dried herbs. I give them unlimited hey plus total of 6 tbsp Oxbow chinchills pellets per day (so 3 tbs per chin per day). They rarely finish all the pellets by morning. Do you think I should give them less pellets?