weird growth on dog tail
 

Hi,

I have 3 yr old pekapoo.

I just found a weird lump on his tail. It looks like a stick and i thought it was a sliver from a twig...but it looks like there is a bump and its growing out of it.

I attached some photos..anyone have any idea what it is?

I thinking i could just slowing pull it out...and avoid a vet bill, unless its something serious that would require a visit.

Thanks

Looks like skin tags...check with your vet to make sure there is nothing serious going on. We are not Vets here. Care to share pics of your fur-kid's face!!lol

I looked up skin tags...its not it.
Its actually something coming out of it.

I thought it could be a sebaceous cyst?

I pulled the twig thing slowly, but it broke off at the base. So what's left is a lump with bulge in it. I squeezed it a little and my dog didn't look like it hurt at all, but some white "creame" not "ooze" flowed out. After the first squeeze, further squeezing didnt produce any more and i didnt want to pinch any harder. I stop at after additional gentle squeezes didnt do anthing.

Here are some pics after we came in from a walk in the sudden rain.

-GF

My GSD used to get those.

They start as a small elevation in the skin, firm, then start looking like a wart. Then they develop into those tube-y things, until not only the cremey white studf comes out, but a chunk of the stuff hardened and white. Once that chunk comes out, then it starts to heal. It often seemed to occur near a joint or area bothered him.

Do not pick at it much, it can get infected, only once when it is ready. If the "tube" part comes off too soon, at least with my dog, it would blled a lot, so best to leave it until it's ready on it's own. I used to use peroxide when it initially opened up.

I liken them to the picture of the closeup of the tufas here:
[url]http://www.monolake.org/about/geotufa[/url]

Now, this was true for my dog. I'm a BIG believer in any new lumps and bumps being checked out by a vet because you never know when one of them is actually something bad, like a cancer.

yeah it does look like the tufas.

Now that I know its there. I'm just gonna keep an eye on it day by day and see how it goes.

I just use a little neosporin, since it is in the middle of his tail and he can't get to it at all. I hate peroxide, it stings on cuts and neosporin doesn't...at least for my own cut experience.

I'd love to take him to the vet...but if it's not an emergency, as i'm underemployed, I have to try and avoid any unnecessary expenditures.

I'd love to do right by him, but damn my impoverished cashflow.

Times are tough all over nowadays :(

I will say that it looks *exactly* like my boys' did, for whatever that is worth. Regular brushing might help future ones from developing, but I don't think it will help with these. I never found anything that would help with these, to speed up the process, but making sure there is no infection will definitely help. Chances are, this will resolve on it's own, but be sure to find a way make that appt if it starts getting worse.

Glad I found this!
 

This is exactly what my sheltie has! I'm so glad to see it'll resolve easily. I just took off the hard part and got the white gunk out, then put some neosporin on him.

Kind of weird, too, because the link to those tufas leads to mono lake, and my dog is named after a ghost town right by mono lake--Bodie!:dog:

Update:

I was able to get my dog to the vet. Not much help there. They told me it was a regular cyst and its ok unless it was bothering him or it'll be about 400$ to surgically remove it.

Just keeping it clean and now its alot smaller that when i first found it. Maxalisa- will persistent application of neosporin treat the cyst to disappear?

I might start doing that, but when i put a small wrap on his tail, he eventually just pulls it off. I'm not sure if its a good idea for the dog to ingest neosporin?

--GF

I never really tried putting something on it regularly. Might try coconut oil.

I've found one of these "tufas" on our 3 year old Bohemian Shepherd about a month ago. When I was examining it, it fell off and I saved it in a jar. On the end that was attached, was what looked like a white ball (as in a ballpoint pen).
We've had several dogs, but I've never seen anything like this. I thought it was some kind of a parasite crawling out. I just checked the site today and the stick is back.