My dog has a bleeding, infected lump on its back. What to do?

It could be an infection, cyst, or possibly a hystiocytoma. The best thing would be to have a vet take a look at the lesion. Your vet can do a needle aspirate to help diagnose and then determine the best way to treat. He may need an antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, or it may need to be removed. Hope he feels better soon!

This looks like it could be a cyst or a skin tumor like a hemangioma. I find that once a skin growth ruptures it tends to happen again, so I would definitely recommend making an appointment to see your veterinarian. They will probably recommend surgically removing this growth.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This could be a benign or malignant growth. There is no way of knowing for sure without an examination though this represents a reason to seek veterinary care. This is usually determined with an examination and a fine needle aspirate (FNA) or a biopsy. Treatment depends on the findings up to that point. I recommend you have Gunnar evaluated by a veterinarian for further assessment and treatment. Good luck and have a good night!

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Paris. I would clean the irritated bump with warm water. Then place an E-collar on her to prevent any further licking. If this does not help it to heal, then she will need to see her veterinarian. I hope this information helps!

Without further testing, there is no way to tell if this growth is due to infection, trauma or allergy, or if it is a tumour. Tumours can be of a malignant (cancerous) type that can spread elsewhere and/ or invade the healthy tissue around them, or a more benign (noncancerous) type that is unlikely to spread. I recommend making an appointment to see your vet to have the growth tested. In many cases this can be done using a fine needle aspirate, where cells are removed from the growth using a needle and examined under a microscope to determine what it is and to guide treatment. In some cases further testing may be needed to determine the necessary course of treatment, but it is important to get new growths tested in a timely manner, as some can be cancerous and quite aggressive in their growth, and growths due to infection, allergy or trauma can lead to complications or be indicators of underlying health problems. In the meantime, it is very important that you keep Trey from licking the area to help prevent infection by making sure he wears the “cone” (also known as an e-collar or Elizabethan collar) at all times when he is not being directly supervised by you, including while sleeping. Pain medications meant for humans can be very dangerous (and even deadly) for dogs, so I do not recommend giving any to your pup without consulting with your vet. Your veterinarian can prescribe safe medication to help with the pain as needed. Hope your pup feels better soon!

I would recommend that you have this little mass checked out by a vet, but I would not consider it an emergency. You could wait until Monday if your vet is not open. If Nala is scratching and causing it to bleed, you may need to have her wear an e-collar to prevent further damage. It could be a histiocytoma, but a vet would need to get a small sample of cells to examine under a microscope to rule out other types of tumors that can look similar. http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=1676

This kind of lump/growth needs to be ideally assessed by your veterinarian to have a definitive and specific answer. Usually there are two ways your vet can do that a part from examining it directly during physical examination. A biopsy can be taken under local or general anesthetic, otherwise a smaller sample through a fine needle can be aspirated (this technique is called FNA= fine needle aspiration). Differentials include skin cysts, infections, benign or more sinister type of tumors. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.