Veterinary needle test for pet lumps remains underused despite its benefits

A survey reveals that only 29% of vets frequently use fine needle aspiration to assess skin lumps in dogs and cats, despite its simplicity, affordability, and potential to improve diagnosis and treatment outcomes, highlighting a gap in routine veterinary practice driven by workflow and owner concerns.

A cheap needle test that can help distinguish harmless lumps from cancerous growths in dogs and cats is still being overlooked in routine small-animal practice, despite long-standing veterinary guidance urging its use. A survey published in Veterinary Oncology suggests that this gap matters for both clinical outcomes and clinic economics, because delayed diagnosis can alter surgery, staging and follow-up decisions, while also increasing the risk of avoidable, blind operations.

The study’s authors found that only 29% of respondents said they used fine needle aspiration on more than half of skin and subcutaneous masses, and the average use rate was 39%. That sits uneasily with evidence that the test is quick, inexpensive and minimally invasive, and with earlier work showing it can identify malignancy in a substantial share of cases.

The survey, led by Gillian Dank and colleagues, reached 10,000 US veterinary professionals but drew a response rate of just 2.4%, a limitation the authors acknowledged. Even so, the pattern was clear: heavier caseloads were linked with lower use of aspiration, while more experienced clinicians were more likely to adopt it.

Owners’ reluctance and cost concerns were common reasons for skipping the procedure. Yet the findings also point to a broader training and workflow problem: if a clinic can fit in palpation, it can usually fit in a needle sample. For practices under pressure, the risk is that speed is winning over evidence.