had experience with a tumor
We had a basset that developed a tumor on the inside of her back leg around the age of 8. It came on very quickly. The Vet did a biopsy, which showed the tumor to be non-malignant. We chose not to have it removed b/c it would have interfered with the movement of her back leg. She was very active, jumped on and off all the furniture in the house, walked, hiked, swam. The tumor grew to be the size of a small tangerine. It never seemed to cause her any problem. We lost her this past fall to what the Vet called a "big dog" disease, mass on liver and spleen, totally not related to the tumor on her leg. Four weeks before she crossed the rainbow bridge, at age 11, due to the liver problem, she hiked with us five miles up hill! She was a happy bassett with a leg tumor! If we had to do it over, we'd choose the same option, not to operate on the non-maligant tumor.