# Cyst, tumor.. what the heck is this?



## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

My friend got me 2 whole beef livers, yes thats right, 2 WHOLE beef livers. I thought beef liver was the size that it came in in the grocery store, turns out thats only a SLIVER of a liver. So now I have about 15+ pounds of beef liver. Thank god Ruby likes it!

Anyway, I was cutting one up, and in the center of the liver, there was this round white thing, I cut into it, and out came some creamy white stuff. Smells kinda funky too. Felt like I was popping a pimple or something. Not gunna lie, I gagged like crazy when I was taking the pictures. 

Is it still ok to feed the liver to Ruby, obviously cutting around the area where the thing was. Or, is it garbage now?

Is it a cyst, or a tumor, or what the heck is it! lol. Ill be sooooo angry if the whole liver is garbage, but at the same time I dont want to feed something to Ruby that came from a cancerous tumour or something. >.< Going through the torture of cutting it up for nothing.

Sorry the quality isnt too good, its on my phone. The last picture is without the flash, so I think it can be seen a bit better.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

uke:uke:

I would cut it out and toss it!


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## Neeko (Aug 11, 2010)

It almost makes me think of a sebaceous cyst...


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## Neeko (Aug 11, 2010)

Could it be liver flukes?

Or something benign, like a hepatic cyst?


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Sprocket said:


> uke:uke:
> 
> I would cut it out and toss it!


Just cut out the surrounding area that the cyst thing was in, or toss the WHOLE liver? I cut out a huge area of where the cyst thing was, just to be on the safe side lol.

The rest of the liver looks and smells perfect.


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Neeko said:


> Could it be liver flukes?
> 
> Or something benign, like a hepatic cyst?


Liver flukes? Whats that O.O

If you all bought this liver for your dog and saw it, would you feed the rest of the liver and toss out the general area where the "cyst" was, or just toss the entire liver in general?


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

if that were me, i would toss it with prejudice. but that's me.


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

magicre said:


> if that were me, i would toss it with prejudice. but that's me.


The entire liver?

Cause the thing that got me thinking is I wonder how many things grocery stores or butchers sell that might have had some sort of growth on them that they just cut out. The other bag of liver I got was cut into long slices already for me. Seperate cow for that one.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

magicre said:


> if that were me, i would toss it with prejudice. but that's me.


YOu are won't even feed slightly green liver.

Some body is a meat snob...*cough* re *cough*


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

Kat said:


> Just cut out the surrounding area that the cyst thing was in, or toss the WHOLE liver? I cut out a huge area of where the cyst thing was, just to be on the safe side lol.
> 
> The rest of the liver looks and smells perfect.


I would cut around the thing and throw that part out.

Then I would feed the liver


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Lol meat snob, never heard that one before. If Re is one, Im sure I am too. If I see anything slightly off I toss it, like when I got a slightly green lamb heart.

*weeps* Im warring with myself, because on one side I dont want to waste all the money I spent on that stupid giant liver, but on the second hand, I dont want to feed Ruby something that is potentially "dangerous"

It's 3 giant ziploc bags of that liver *sigh* I will keep them in the freezer, and wait for more responses, and go with the choice of *keep* or *toss* on how many people say which one lol. Im a raw feeder baby, cant think for myself :tongue:


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

i am a protein collector and sorry, if a liver has a pimple or a cyst or a thing that looks like pus, it has something i am not feeding my dogs.

i'd rather waste a liver than take a chance on visiting the vet. more expensive.

the liver is an excretory organ. if it has something poppable on it or pus - filled...then no. hell no.


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

And, it's from a local farm by my friends house in Simcoe, grass fed, no hormones or antibiotics


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

i have bought whole livers...and i've cut them open. and i have never gotten one that had pus and pimples and gooey white stuff in it.

cough sprocket cough. yes. i am a meat snob LOL


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

magicre said:


> i am a protein collector and sorry, if a liver has a pimple or a cyst or a thing that looks like pus, it has something i am not feeding my dogs.
> 
> i'd rather waste a liver than take a chance on visiting the vet. more expensive.
> 
> the liver is an excretory organ. if it has something poppable on it or pus - filled...then no. hell no.


That is a VERY good point. 

Now Im paranoid about the other liver I have, the one that is already sliced up from another cow. *bangs head on desk*


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## BeagleCountry (Jan 20, 2012)

Send the pics as an email attachment to the Ag College Animal and Poultry department and Veterinary Pathology departments that are near the bottom of the link below. Ask for identification and if it is safe to feed the remaining part of the liver to a dog.
Colleges & Departments | University of Guelph


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

figure a cow only has one liver. so the other one is probably safe.


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Thank you BeagleCountry, I just sent them an email with the pictures.


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Personally, if I saw something like that, I wouldn't feed it either. I look at it like this, if I was cutting it up for the other half and me, and found something like a fatty tumour or whatever it is in the meat, there's no way we'd be eating it. (on second thoughts, maybe I'd feed it to the other half, depending on what an arse he'd been that day! Joking, joking!). So, I wouldn't feed it to Wind or Mol either.
Shame, grass fed, and all natural. Hey, maybe maybe they slipped the cow it a vodka or two?


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## BearMurphy (Feb 29, 2012)

oh man i just googled a bunch of stuff and now i'm freaked out about parasites. it's definitely not normal, but I couldn't figure it out from looking at images. sucks you couldn't return it. it'll be interesting to see what the university says


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Kat said:


> Thank you BeagleCountry, I just sent them an email with the pictures.


Be interesting to see what they say.


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Well, from all the *toss it* comments, I will not be feeding it either way. 

I too am interested to see what they email back to me. 

So disappointing, waste of money, but like Re said - cheaper than going to the vet is anything were to happen. 

Grrr....


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Or, why not just chuck it in the freezer until you get an answer?


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

MollyWoppy said:


> Or, why not just chuck it in the freezer until you get an answer?


Yeah that's true, good idea.

Looking at the pictures really grosses me out lol... I dont know how I was able to even pick it up with the plastic baggie to take pictures *shudders*


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## NewYorkDogue (Sep 27, 2011)

Kat said:


> Yeah that's true, good idea.
> 
> Looking at the pictures really grosses me out lol... I dont know how I was able to even pick it up with the plastic baggie to take pictures *shudders*


Man. I have been able to handle just about anything this forum has offered up in terms of gross photos.. but this pus-filled cyst thing. Ugh. I almost lost my dinner, seriously.

No way, no how, would that thing have lasted long enough on my counter top to even take a photo...

Kat, you are a stronger woman than me!


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Lol NewYorkDogue, that is too funny! You dont even know how hard it was. When I was picking it up out of the sink again to throw it out, it smeared and I literally almost threw up. I skipped dinner, which I am now regretting cause Im starving!

And yeah, Im trying to avoid looking at the pictures too much also, they really are nastyyyy.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

*Can't you return the liver? LOL

Check out this fish Drew pulled out of the river....yucky!*


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## Dude and Bucks Mamma (May 14, 2011)

Emily, the first thing I thought of when I saw the fish was a cookie cutter shark! Hahaha. I wonder what the h*ll happened to that fish!

As far as the liver goes... I am with Re. I would toss it. It sucks but I would never feed that to my dogs simply for the fact that anything involving puss grosses me out FAR more than most things. I find it horrendous. I am definitely interested to see what the university says, though.

All of my liver is chopped up into 1 inch x 1 inch cubes so I'm glad I know that I would run into something like that before I fed it!


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## Neeko (Aug 11, 2010)

Sprocket said:


> *Can't you return the liver? LOL
> 
> Check out this fish Drew pulled out of the river....yucky!*


That looks like an abscess. Perhaps started by being foul hooked?


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

Kat said:


> *weeps* Im warring with myself, because on one side I dont want to waste all the money I spent on that stupid giant liver, but on the second hand, I dont want to feed Ruby something that is potentially "dangerous":


If you paid money for it, by all means return it. Friend or not - if i found that in anything I paid for, I'd want my money back.


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## lab mom (May 6, 2012)

Interested in what the University you sent the pic's to has to say. 

My guess- An Abscess! 

I have always thought of flukes as being like worms, but really they are more like a bloodsucker or leach.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

NewYorkDogue said:


> Man. I have been able to handle just about anything this forum has offered up in terms of gross photos.. but this pus-filled cyst thing. Ugh. I almost lost my dinner, seriously.
> 
> No way, no how, would that thing have lasted long enough on my counter top to even take a photo...
> 
> Kat, you are a stronger woman than me!


i felt the same way, and i've seen much worse.

i guess i wasn't expecting to see a dripping, greenish white blob.....on liver.



for me? no freeze. write the email. find out what it was and toss it and hope no one you know ate that cow. LOL


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Yeah, Iv been thinking about it today while I was at work. Im going to throw it out. It sucks, but I dont feel comfortable feeding it. Especially when looking at the picture when it was still attached to the liver, it looks like the cyst thing was starting to affect some of the surrounding area because it was paling. 

It was like $15 worth of liver, so Ill live lol. I still have a whole other liver that I cut up and portioned which looks fine.


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## Chocx2 (Nov 16, 2009)

I'm agreeing with the majority if I saw that I would bring it back where I got it if was worth money and ask them to replace it.


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

I would if I could, but it's not from my city, and I dont have a car. My friend went to her butcher and brought it to me when she came to visit. Her place is an hour and a half away from me. So getting there for $15 worth of liver isnt worth the travel expenses lol. To take a go bus or train to get there it would be about 20$ there and back, which is more than I paid for the liver to begin with. 

If I got it close to home, I would definitely have made a fuss at the butchers lol


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

Kat said:


> Yeah, Iv been thinking about it today while I was at work. Im going to throw it out. It sucks, but I dont feel comfortable feeding it. Especially when looking at the picture when it was still attached to the liver, it looks like the cyst thing was starting to affect some of the surrounding area because it was paling.
> 
> It was like $15 worth of liver, so Ill live lol. I still have a whole other liver that I cut up and portioned which looks fine.


want to thank you because i have yet to get the pics out of my head LOL


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Sorry Re >.< If I could edit the name of the thread to say "caution gross pictures" I would. Last night when I was going to bed the image popped into my head lol


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

Kat said:


> Sorry Re >.< If I could edit the name of the thread to say "caution gross pictures" I would. Last night when I was going to bed the image popped into my head lol



i've seen worse....it was just surprising to see a liver like that. and from a grass fed/grass finished cow who had not been given antibiotics nor hormones.

livers should not look like that in a healthy animal. so now i wonder just how healthy the animal was. can't wait to hear the report.


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