Mass in anal glands. Any experience? Costs of treatment?

[sunshinechaser]

My 9 year old lovely dog kept licking her butt so I had her at the vet tonight fully expecting just a standard anal gland emptying. She's had this done 3 or 4 times before.
However the vet said she could feel a mass on one of my dog's anal glands that would need to be examined under GA. The vet said it could be an infection or a tumour.
My dog is going to the vet in 2 weeks to have her teeth cleaned under GA so they will examine her anal glands while she is under and take it from there.
The vet mentioned biopsies, chemotherapy (!) surgery etc etc.
I'm a bit devastated obviously but more so as I only cancelled her pet insurance last month and it ran out last week. I actually can't believe my rotten luck. She's 9 and I've never claimed pet insurance for her but her monthly premiums have increased each year to £70/month now. This is with a 20% excess and a cap of £7k. We just couldn't afford it with all our other outgoings.
Has anyone's dog had similar and have any idea of the cost?
I obviously hope it's just an infection but I'm trying to plan for the worst.

why on earth did you cancel?

it will now be both on impossible to ever get her insured again

Great thanks. Wonderfully helpful there.

OP says that in her OP and your comment is unhelpful.

OP, you’re potentially looking at thousands if it is cancer for treatment. Best case scenario it’s a few hundred for the tests. Some vets do a payment (monthly) plan so worth seeing if yours does that! Really hope your dog is okay!

@Killingoffmyflowersonebyone thanks for that.

Could you approach an animal charity like PDSA?

Thanks @OldTinHat I'll bear that in mind. The vet did say it would most likely be an infection but I specifically asked what treatment she would need if it was a tumour. So I'm hoping against hope that it's just an infection.

My dog had similar recently, age 9 too, turn out it was an abscess and antibiotics sorted her out. Really hope its the same for yours. The fact your ddog seems bothered and licking her bottom suggests infection to me?

Thanks @Rainraingoaway21. Good point. The vet also checked her lymph nodes and these were fine. I initially thought this was a good thing as if it was cancer it might not have spread but then I thought if it was an infection surely her lymph nodes would be inflamed too?

My 13yr old dog has a tumor in this location.

He had a minor surgery that cost about £900 to determine whether it was cancerous or not. (I changed vets at this stage as despite having paid the bill they refused to hand over the paperwork or say whether he had cancer or not). They were very keen to book him in for surgery! This was a large chain of vets, usually found in retail parks btw.

The next vet, read the notes and confirmed it was benign. We were given antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. This didn’t have much effect. Approx £40.

If your dog was not having his teeth done I would suggest asking for the above first.

How much more will it cost to have the biopsy? (I was quoted £100 for this but my dog is a small one).

I decided against the surgical route as I was warned about the possibility of incontinence.

5yrs on my little dog is still full of life and it has very little impact on his quality of life. It is very slow growing.

My own experience is that when you’re not insured you actually get given ‘options* at the vets.

Good to know @OneOliveEagle. I think the vet said the biopsy would be £150 but she had a really strong foreign accent so I didn't really understand her fully.
I'm being awful here but I'm now wondering if it's a tumour is there any point getting her teeth done under GA if the worst might happen soon after?
I think I might phone the vets again tomorrow and maybe ask for antibiotics (the vet initially said tonight she would hold off on antibiotics until she could examine the mass under GA thinking this would be next week. When I then booked her teeth in, I couldn't get an appointment for another 2 weeks so quite a while to wait without antibiotics).

Could you ask them to put her under and check the mass first (before doing the cleaning) and then you can decide where to go from there based on whether they think it's an abscess or something more?

So maybe a little diff when my jrt was similar age he had a tumour underneath his tail. It wa thought to be caused by testosterone and he had that and his balls removed at the same time.

I chose not to have biopsies etc. it was reasonable price wise (circa £300) but this was 6 years ago. I also don’t have insurance. Weighed it up and thought it was better to save the premium amounts and spend as needed. He does have cushings now and I’m paying out about £100 a month but by the time I’d paid 25% and the actual premium it’d be similar. I do have the occasional more expensive month.

My old dog had a mass removed from this area back in 2011 after I had noticed blood spots on the floor. It was done by a small vet practice and cost approx £430. Obviously it was a long time ago, but my memory is just that the lump was removed in surgery, I don’t think he had any tests etc as they got good margins in surgery. We had just moved house and started pet insurance as the mortgage was much bigger, but I noticed this about 3 days into the policy, so it wasn’t covered. He was fine after this and lived for a further 3 years with no further issues in that area.

Good luck.

Thanks so much @noodles44 @Autumndayz77 @coffeesaveslives. Really helpful. I feel less annoyed at myself this morning for cancelling her insurance. Once I did the sums I'm thinking I'd still be cheaper paying for whatever she needs rather than paying ever increasing insurance premiums every month. Also considering I'd need to pay a 20% excess (I think that's what I had) and payments capped at £7k.
I'm going to phone the vet today and ask if they can explain again as I was a bit shocked and upset when they mentioned a mass that I don't think I took in too much info.
They'll probably charge me for the phone call!