Our sweet little toy poodle, Riley, has a recurring problem with lipomas. When he was young he had developed a sizeable lipoma that we felt was really quite worrying. We decided it made sense to have him operated on, and it was removed. The surgeon who had conducted the operation assured me that we needn't be concerned for the future; that lipoma would never return. But it did. And more appeared, as well.

Occasionally one of the lipomas - a fairly health-innocuous fatty deposit that gathers under the skin and can be very small or grow to impressive proportions - will begin of its own accord to shrink. Our veterinarian said he had never heard of lipomas disappearing on their own. These managed to, somehow, and he could see the evidence, from the condition of the skin where they had formerly stretched it.

To our queries whether his diet might possibly have anything to do with the development of the lipomas we were always informed unequivocally that diet plays no part in their formation. Riley's physical movements have never appeared to be impeded by the presence of the lipomas; they tend to grow on either the right or left backside, under the groin in clusters or singly, swelling the skin and producing large humps. He doesn't appear to suffer any discomfort with their presence.

We embark on our daily walks in the ravine, winter and summer. He is now approaching his 13th year and is no longer nearly as rambunctious as he was when he was younger. He toddles along diffidently, but speeds up when it suits him. He hasn't done any jumping in years or leaping about. He has a robust appetite and appears completely normal in all respects.

I've decided, finally, to remove grains from his diet. All commercially prepared dog foods have grains in them. But it's possible that the grains may lead to allergies in our little guy. I'm willing to give it a try. We've always fed him a high-quality dog kibble, and added a daily fresh vegetable salad, as well as additional cooked chicken to his diet.

I've taken instruction from my daughter, to prepare a recipe for him that excludes grain. It has lean minced chicken, sweet potato, red lentils, carrot, spinach, broccoli, garlic, olive oil, turmeric, parsley, ground flaxseed, basil and rosemary in it. He won't be short of his basic nutritional needs and then some. I'm willing to give it a try, hoping that by some miracle of interaction between metabolizing these food products and his needs being fulfilled the reactions that have caused those lipomas will cease.