[Draugr]

While giving my dog a neck massage I noticed that one side of his neck (closer to his jowls, really, just under his jawline) has a lump. It rotates and moves around VERY freely, though it is attached to "something" as it stays in that spot, and does not appear to cause him any pain whatsoever. I can place my fingers on the top and bottom of it, and move it around. If you stack two or three quarters together it is maybe about that size? It is sort of disc-shaped, and gets thicker toward the middle. It feels like it maybe has the consistency of cartilage, maybe a bit softer? It is hard to tell with it being under the skin. It definitely is not as hard as bone.

I can push on it pretty hard and he has absolutely no reaction to it.

I'm getting him in to the vet soon, but in the meantime I'm wondering what it might be. My first guess was a swollen lymph node - which makes me worry about lymphatic cancer, but none of his other lymph nodes (or where I would expect them to be) have any swelling whatsoever. No other bumps on his body - he had two sebaceous cysts on his back awhile ago that have burst, healed, and have since not returned.

He recently had an ear infection in the ear closest to that lump, could it be swollen from just getting over that infection? Or maybe the antibiotics didn't actually clear it up? (We had to go through two courses - the drops didn't work, had to use oral antibiotics).

Any thoughts? I don't like rushing off to the vet unless he's in visible pain or distress, I try to have a few days worth of observation first unless there's an obvious emergency. I plan to monitor it and probably get him in Monday afternoon. Or Saturday, if I get it off work this week.

Could it just be one of those benign fatty tumors? I've got one of those in my wrist, though it feels harder than what Samson has and doesn't move around as easily (though to be fair there is a lot more skin and muscle in his neck than in my wrist).