Soft tissue surgery refers to any surgery that does not include the bone.  Besides routine spay and neuter, the most common type of soft tissue surgery is the removal of growths. The most common type of growth found are skin growths, which is, tissue that forms on the skin or can be felt just under the skin. Other types of soft tissue surgery include but are not limited to surgery of the eye (3^rd eye lid or cherry eye) and suturing lacerations.

The developments of skin growths are very common especially as an animal gets older.  The skin growth could be a benign (non-cancerous) accumulation of fat called lipomas, a benign or malignant (cancerous) tumor, a cysts, a hematoma (blood-filled mass), or even an allergic reaction such as hives.  An examination will allow the veterinarian to distinguish between a growth, abscess (a localized collection of pus that can sometimes be mistaken as a growth by pet owners), hematoma, or an allergic reaction.  Early removal of growths and accurate diagnosis are necessary to improve the outcome in your pet if the growth is malignant.  We always recommend removal of suspicious growths while they are still small.  This allows the doctor to try to remove all of the suspicious cells.   If the biopsy reveals that the cells are malignant, the entire growth has already been removed which helps reduce the chance of metastasis (the spread of cancer from its primary site to other sites in the body).