My dog's open wound won't heal. Could it be cancer or infection?

Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I'm sorry to hear that Aries has a scab/wounded area that is struggling to heal. Any lump/mass on the skin could potentially be cancerous, but the only way to definitively diagnose this is by a veterinarian sampling cells from the area and examining them under a microscope. Sometimes the entire affected area needs to be removed and submitted to a lab for biopsy in order to see what type of mass it is. If it turns out to just be a non-healing wound, your veterinarian can make recommendations about how to help the area heal. If you want, you can post on the forum again with a few photos of this area and someone may be able to give you additional information. I hope this is helpful!

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Lucky. Since the wound is not healing, I am concerned that he actually has a mass. I would recommend seeing his veterinarian for a procedure known as a fine needle aspirate. The veterinarian will use a small needle to collect a sample of cells to evaluate under the microscope. There is a benign growth called a histiocytoma that is common in young dogs. Unfortunately, there is also an aggressive form of skin cancer known as a mast cell tumor. This second mass has the same outward appearance as the benign growth. For this reason, it must be evaluated microscopically. I hope this information helps!

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Sorry to see that T is having this problem. A few things are possible here. I am assuming that the original wound never healed, only got better. If that's the case then I would suspect either a foreign body has entered the leg or an insect/spider/other has bitten him that started the entire problem. Puncture wounds can look very different over time so it may have been only one small puncture wound from the inciting event. I would advise taking T back to your veterinarian so they can recheck the wound and possibly rethink what is going on. (Assuming they saw it initially) after it first happened. They may want to culture the wound and run a sensitivity of the bugs that grow out of the culture to determine what antibiotics would be best. They may also advise some x-rays to determine if a foreign body has entered the leg although this can be of questionable value depending what the foreign body could be. Exploring the wound might be another option. All of these can be discussed with your veterinarian and I have made some assumptions here and could be wrong. I wish you the best of luck with T and I hope you get to the bottom of this very soon.

Based on that location I would be very worried that this is a mammary tumor. This cannot be diagnosed with a blood test. A biopsy of the tissue must be taken and sent to a laboratory for testing in order to rule out a tumor. I, personally, would do a radical mastectomy removing all that swelling/mass and put a drain in there and stitch it closed. If it was a simple infection it would have cleared up by now with the treatment you have already provided so I think you need to do this as the next step.

This should be seen and examined by a veterinarian. This could be an infected hotspot, an ulcerated tumor or another skin condition that needs veterinary attention. Since it looks infected I would definitely make an appointment for the next few days. Depending on the diagnosis your vet will prescribe medications or suggest removal of the mass. This is a tricky spot for mass removal, as there is very little skin available to close the wound, so it will likely take a few weeks to months to heal after surgery.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. From the pictures, it does appear that this is a sizable hole. Unfortunately, when dealing with cancer cells, anytime a cancerous mass is removed this is a possible complication. Flushing the area may help this heal faster or this may not heal well at all due to the cancerous nature of the area. I would say that if this is not looking like it is developing healthy tissue within a week of flushing and caring for the open wound, I would recommend having this closed with stitches again. I would have the veterinarian check the wound every 3 days to monitor it's progression. This area is hard to bandage and most likely a bandage would not stay in place in this area. I would leave this exposed to the air so it heals better. When she goes to sleep at night, I would put a shirt around her or a pair of boxer shorts to keep it protected. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

This could be more than one thing- ringworm, fungal infection, parasites, bacterial infection, allergies- if the wound does not seem to get better in the next couple weeks you should take her to the vet in order to get it checked and treated.