# Cyst from Vaccine



## TamaraCamera (Dec 27, 2015)

I just wanted to share what happened to Lincoln last week, as it might prove useful to someone else in the future.

About a month ago, I had felt a little marble-sized lump around his shoulder blades, and after reading up on it, determined it was due to his rabies shot (which he had gotten a week or so earlier). After another 2 weeks or so, it hadn't gone away and didn't seem smaller - it may have even felt a bit bigger. So I called the vet back again, and the tech said that it wasn't uncommon for it to take weeks, or even a month to go away.

So, I brought Lincoln in last week for his scheduled neuter and umbilical hernia surgery. (In addition, he was going to get microchipped. They also ended up pulling his top 2 canines, as they weren't falling out on their own). I asked the tech to look at the bump since, the day or so before, it started to look like it had flaky skin on it, which was a new development. By the morning of his surgery, it looked like it had yellowish/reddish crusty stuff on it, although it felt like it was getting smaller - I figured it had ruptured?

I got a call from the vet as she was going into his surgeries, and she said that since he was under anyhow, she wanted to remove it and determine what it was. She said had he not been having surgery already, they would have tried antibiotics first. She thought it might be related to his recent rabies vaccine, but wasn't sure, and didn't like that it had ruptured. She ended up having to take some areas of margin around it, too, just in case the cyst wanted to redevelop.

We got the biopsy results back this week, and it did come back as a reaction to vaccination. She said that in some cases (a minor amount), those reactions could turn into cancerous tumors. She felt it was good that they took the cyst out to prevent it from turning into anything else, as the body was clearly rejecting it.

After Googling the topic, I came across this:

_Vaccinal adverse reactions are becoming more recognized and acknowledged in the veterinary community -- in an August 1, 2008 article in DVM360 entitled Vaccination: An Overview, http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/avhc/...l.jsp?id=568351 Dr. Melissa Kennedy states that of the two types of vaccinal adverse reactions:

Adverse reactions have also become a major concern in small animal medicine. .... These fall into two general categories. The first is immediate hypersensitivity. This may be a local or systemic response, and is due to pre-existing antibody to the agent. This is the classic "allergic reaction" to the vaccine and can be life-threatening. The second is a delayed response, requiring days of longer to develop. The vaccine, seen as foreign, elicits a significant inflammatory response and is especially true for adjuvanted vaccines. This response can manifest as a granuloma, or more seriously, a fibrosarcoma . Further, she reports that The likelihood of adverse reactions in dogs has been found to correlate with the size of the dog and the number of inoculations given, with higher risk associated with small size and multiple inoculations._

Just thought I would share our experience, as it was a bit outside of the norm! And we had split vaccines up - he mostly got one at a time, with 2 at a time at the initial appointment or two. Lincoln is 8 days post-surgeries, and his 3 incisions are healing nicely from what I can tell. We go back on Monday to have his stitches removed, and he is looking forward to going for daily walks again!


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## Sheri (Oct 11, 2008)

Thank you for sharing this with us. Vaccinations, especially the rabies, are causing a lot of problems for our small dogs, and we really need to become advocates for our pups, because so many vets are not looking out for their good in this area.

And I am so glad that the vet got it out of Lincoln before (hopefully!) it spread!


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## TamaraCamera (Dec 27, 2015)

Sheri said:


> Thank you for sharing this with us. Vaccinations, especially the rabies, are causing a lot of problems for our small dogs, and we really need to become advocates for our pups, because so many vets are not looking out for their good in this area.
> 
> And I am so glad that the vet got it out of Lincoln before (hopefully!) it spread!


So am I - our vet is great! (Her own dog is Lincoln's cousin). :wink2: She is letting the company know about the reaction, too. I am so glad I mentioned it that day and didn't just ignore it!


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## Molly120213 (Jan 22, 2014)

Glad Lincoln is going to be ok. I hope he has a speedy recovery from his surgeries.


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## Raffi'sMom (Jan 25, 2016)

Quick recovery little Lincoln. Thanks for sharing this information.


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