http://www.smartgroups.com/message/readmessage.cfm? gid=1423922&messageid=11529&startid=11518 Your description sounds like a large lymph node(s). It is not a hard surgery to remove a lymph node to send out to a pathologist for the diagnosis. Unfortunately lymphoma is the likely cause of a large "golf ball sized" lymph node. If it is lymphoma then there are options to treat it (chemotherapy, pred with cyclophosphamide or just pred). Let us know what the pathology report says, Jerry Murray, DVM [Posted in FML issue 4703]