Did you know dogs and cats can get breast cancer, too?

🐶 Dogs and cats can get breast cancer, just like humans

🐱 Spaying and neutering them early in life is the best prevention

🐶 Obesity can also play a role in them developing tumors

Did you know that dogs and cats can get breast cancer, too?

It’s more common than you think, but not something that’s talked about a lot. But there is good news, said Dr. Linda Marie Pedro, a veterinary associate at Murray Hill Veterinary Associates in New Providence.

“If we are spaying them before their first heat cycle or even before their second heat cycle, then the risk of mammary cancer development in them as they get older decreases by 80% if we do it before their first heat cycle and 50% if we do it before their second heat cycle,” Pedro said.

Breast cancer diagnoses in dogs and cats are typically hormone-based. When a puppy or a kitten is spayed at the appropriate age recommended by their vet, it reduces the risk of mammary cancer so much that it’s not often seen later in their lives.

The problem happens when adult rescues and strays are spayed and neutered later in life because that’s when the vet first sees them.

“Those animals are developing mammary cancer later on because they had so much hormone exposure for longer than two and a half years of their life,” Pedro said.

Prevention

Spaying and neutering dogs and cats younger than two and a half years old is the best prevention against breast cancer developing in them later in life, Pedro said.

Obesity at one year of age and older can play a role and tends to cause an increase in mammary tumors, she added.

Proper nutrition and lots of exercise help, too. Great muscle mass in healthier, thinner dogs will help them live longer. Supplements to boost their immune systems also have proven to be helpful.

Diagnosis

Typically, a mass will be felt in a dog or cat’s mammary glands. Pedro said to keep in mind that most dogs have five sets of mammary glands. So, when you’re doing a breast exam on your pet at home, be sure to each of the five mammary glands for any lumps, she said.

While you’re rubbing their bellies, touch the mammary glands once a month similar to a human self-breast exam. If you feel something abnormal, contact your vet immediately. Early intervention will help prolong their lives, she said.

A smaller, firmer solitary lump that’s very well-defined and smooth is often benign. When a lump is becoming fast-growing, ulcerated, irregular, and adhered in the tissues of the mammary gland, tends to be more malignant, Pedro explained.

Treatment

Once a lump is found, it will be surgically removed and sent out to a lab to determine if it’s benign or malignant. Dogs’ mammary glands are different than humans in that they are outside of the muscle, so the surgery is not as radical.

Unfortunately, chemotherapy and radiation treatments have not proven to be successful in prolonging a dog or a cat’s life, Pedro said. Surgery is the best option for removing the tumor and the cancer.

“For the malignancies, there are some dogs and cats, if we spay them and do the mastectomy at the same time within two years of finding that lump, then we can extend their life span for sometimes a year and a half to two years post-surgery, depending on how old they are already when we find these lumps,” Pedro said.

Cats vs. Dogs

Pedro said the risk of malignancy is significantly greater in cats with mammary cancers than it is in dogs. With dogs, many times the tumors are benign associated with the glands.

Key Takeaway

Spaying and neutering early in life will help prevent breast cancer in dogs and cats as they get older.

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