Prognosis often promising if your pet gets cancer

Before cancer treatment for a pet can begin, the precise cancer type must be determined, along with whether it has spread, and if so, how far. Photos: dpa

Uh-oh! You’re petting your pooch or kitty and feel a small lump. There are many possible causes, some of them harmless. But it might be a malignant tumour, so what should you do?

“You can monitor the lump for a while to see if it goes away. If it doesn’t, you should visit a vet and have a biopsy taken,” advises Juliane Glatz, a vet at the Centre for Small Animal Medicine in the German municipality of Neunkirchen-Seelscheid.