An 11-year-old, male golden retriever was admitted with recurrent mass, diagnosed as fibroma, on the front of the head. The mass was tightly attached on the skull and infiltrated into orbit, and was re-diagnosed as well-differentiated fibrosarcoma. Based on CT imaging, aggressive surgical resections, included processes zygomaticus and left eyeball removal, were performed. The repair for resection area was covered with a flap from left muscle temporalis and synthetic pluggings. Although temporally subcutaneous emphysema and redness of the skin were observed, neither evidences of local reccurence nor systemic metastases were observed at approximate 1 year after surgery. From these results, complete resection might be necessary for the mass on the head in large-breed dogs, especially golden retriever, even though the mass was diagnosed as fibroma.

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We experienced two cases of flat-coated retrievers with histiocytic sarcoma showing paraplegia. In Case 1, MRI examination revealed a space-occupying lesion in the lumbar vertebral canal suggestive of an extradural tumor. Hemilaminectomy followed by removal of the tumor was successfully performed, and the dog achieved unaided ambulation after surgery. Histopathological examination of the surgical specimen revealed that the mass was a histiocytic sarcoma. However, the dog became paraplegic again 100 days after surgery. Case 2 showed paraplegia during lomustine-based chemotherapy for treatment of a solitary histiocytic sarcoma on the skin around the right elbow joint. As in Case 1, MRI in Case 2 revealed an extradural tumor of the lumbar spine. These two cases suggest that extradural histiocytic sarcoma should be considered when dogs that are predisposed to histiocytic sarcoma, including flat-coated retrievers, show neurological disorders of the hind limb.

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