My old dog suddenly has a painful, oozing lump. What should I do?

Poor Lily! These lumps look quite irritated and ulcerated. She may already be experiencing some degree of pain and discomfort from these lumps, as indicated by her chewing on them. Other signs of pain in dogs include a decreased appetite, lethargy, and abnormal vocalization. When it comes to surgery, age is not a disease, so if Lily's physical exam and pre-operative blood testing is normal, she is likely to do well with surgical removal of these lumps. It may be worth discussing surgical options, as well as pain medication options, with Lily's vet. I hope this helps and that all goes well!

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. What i am seeing in the pictures is likely a sebaceous cyst that ruptured. These are common with older dogs and are benign. When these rupture there is a chance they will become infected so the best treatment is to have it removed to prevent this from happening. I would recommend consulting with your veterinarian about having this removed. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

This looks infected with either bacteria and/or yeast. I can't tell if anything else is going on like an abscess or tumor. Sophie needs to be re-examined and likely more tests done to determine what's going on.

Your picture came through. Romeo has a major mass that is ulcerated and looks to be infected. He needs to see a vet right away for proper wound management, pain medication and antibiotics. This is a massive mass that cannot be managed at home without the help of your local vet. Once the infection is controlled then it can be discussed whether this mass can be debulked or not. If it cannot then your vet may recommend amputation of the leg. I am sorry your pet has such a massive tumor and I hope everything works out ok for your pet Romeo. Best wishes and take care.

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!

Poor Meesha has a very large tumour on her mammary gland. It is essentially a breast tumour, they can be benign or cancerous but in this case I think this one looks like a very nasty tumour. The wounds on it are because it has become ulcerated. I would suggest visiting another vet as this needs to be dealt with promptly as it will be very painful. To fix this Meesha would need the lump along with associated nipples removex. But firstly i would recommend having her lungs and lymph nodes checked for any spread of tumour. It will be a very big operation to put her through so you will need to weigh this up. If you dont decide to have this removed you will need to consider having Meesha put to sleep unfortunately. It would not be fair to her to not do something in this case.

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!