Mast Cell Tumours - Skin Grafts

[Bazzam]

Hello all and thanks for the wealth of contributions to this site.

My beautiful 12yr old JRT girl, Jemma, has had her fair share of health issues. Starting at 9 years with a simple broken toe, then at 10 she had 2 Mast Cell Tumours removed (Grade 2, either side of her trunk with clean margins post surgery, so I decided not to proceed with chemo). Then last Christmas she decided to swallow 3 rocks and 1 got stuck, so we had our Christmas day at the Animal Emergency Centre, where she was a guest for 3 nights. Then last month she snapped a cruciate, and is recovering well from that (she just had her last Cartrophen injection today).

Unfortunately, I found a suspicious lump on her last night and the vet today confirmed (via fine needle) that it is another MCT. She's been 2 years without a recurrence and we thought we had beaten it. But I guess this could be another primary, not related to the original 2 tumours. So she's off to surgery, again, Monday morning for the biopsy. The vet is going to try and remove as much skin as he can at this stage to save her going back in after the pathology results. This MCT is at the base of her tail, where there is not much skin. Apparently skin grafts might be an option. The original MCT surgery took almost all of her excess skin and I don't know where the graft might come from. Has anyone had any experience with this?

Cheers,

Baz & Jem