Dear Carla: >I've put a couple pics of the sore on my website - URL listed below. It >doesn't look like a "typical" mast cell tumor... my son thinks it looks >possibly like the aftereffect of a brown recluse bite. It's open, >"weepy" and has a sweetish-necrotic odor to it. It doesn't seem to be >attached to bone or any major muscle mass underneath the skin. According >to the folks who rescued these girls from A/C, it started out as a small >flat sore (at the time they were rescued), and grew quickly into the lump >it is now. I'm not sure of the exact time frame. No it certainly doesn't look like any type of mast cell tumor, or any other type of skin tumor. IT has a relatively interesting presentation - it looks like a solid mass, not what you would expect from a bite. Of course, this is at best an educated gues,, but I am thinking of a neoplasm of the subcutaneous tissues - possibly of smooth muscle or connective tissue. Advice - take her in for surgery and have the whole thing removed on Monday. Don;t play around with aspirates or partial biopsies - yank it all out. Request - could you send it to me at the AFIP for a look - there won't be any charges. With kindest regards, Bruce Williams, DVM [Posted in FML issue 3263]