Weird Lump/scabby Thing

[rascalsmom]

Sorry for all the technical terms in the title.

 

For a long time now, Rascal has had what looks like a wart, or something, on her face. It's about an inch below her left eye. It doesn't seem to bother her, but it seems to have a strange cycle.

 

First it starts to grow, and to me it looks like a scab which is growing from the skin outward. It's not round and smooth, but black and..well, like a scab that's growing. It gets to be about a 1/4" long, and then it comes off, and the open "wound" area bleeds. Usually it doesn't bleed too much, but last night, I discovered that it had come off and the side of her face was all bloody! Not "crime-scene" bloody, but like it had bled more than usual. I cleaned her face off and put some Bacitracin ointment on it.

 

I put some more ointment on it this morning, and a little while ago (this is mid-late afternoon) noticed that it was bleeding again!

 

It has repeated this cycle for, I'd guess, close to a year now. Scab...grow...come off....bleed....scab....grow....etc.etc.

 

I did ask the vet about it last time she was there, but at that point it had recently broken off and didn't have the large scabby-type thing yet. The vet really had no idea what it was.

 

So any ideas?

[Guest jettcricket]

Jett used to get them...and yeah, it does look like a small scab and very dark and a bit crusty. I did insist that my vet take it off and he sent to get it tested. I forgot what he called it, but it was totally innocent and nothing to worry about.

 

I would post a picture of it, but my company won't let me go down to photobucket. Sometimes they Surf Control the stupiest things.

[Guest jettcricket]

I found the original thread...I hope it works.

 

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f13/jettcricket/FoundersDayandBabyCrow013.jpg

 

Just click the link....you'll see what it looked like.

[Guest scfilby]

Mickey had this exact thing on her chest just recently. It would grow then we would soak it off, clean and treat, and then it would grow again. At one point the skin surrounding started to look bruised, so we cleaned well and applied providone-iodine which cleared it right up. We called the vet who suggested it sounded like a run away blackhead..

[Hawthorn]

Both mine had one of these. I had them removed and biopsied and both were cutaneous hemangioma: benign, but could turn into the malignant version - cutaneous hemangiosarcoma - if left. It's a good idea to take some pictures to show your vet.

[Guest SueG201]

it is most likely a histeocytoma, my vet does not remove then

[rascalsmom]

It doesn't look like a histeocytoma. Buddy had one of them, and this isn't like that. This really just looks like a black scab that keeps on growing, till it breaks off.

[Guest jettcricket]

Both mine had one of these. I had them removed and biopsied and both were cutaneous hemangioma: benign, but could turn into the malignant version - cutaneous hemangiosarcoma - if left. It's a good idea to take some pictures to show your vet.

Was it as small as the the link that I provided on Jett's belly? I'm surprised....I only wanted my vet to do a biopsy, cause it keep bleeding, scabing and coming back. Jett did get a few more, but most of them went away on there own.

[Guest ellieb]

Indigo just had a similar thing this week! It looked like a black, shiny mole. When I investigated, it "popped" and was all blood. It dried up and now has a much smaller little scab.

 

Should I just tell the vet next time?

 

Thanks for posting this!

 

Ellie

[Guest bigbrindlebunny]

Yes! My Petey has one now on his chest. He used to have one on his butt. My Vet told me not to worry about it, that it was a kind of pimple. But you can't help but wonder/worry as it keeps coming back... Thank you for posting this thread.

[rascalsmom]

Yes! My Petey has one now on his chest. He used to have one on his butt. My Vet told me not to worry about it, that it was a kind of pimple. But you can't help but wonder/worry as it keeps coming back... Thank you for posting this thread.

Right--and it comes back in the SAME SPOT all the time.

[turbotaina]

If it's a sebaceous cyst (iow, a type of pimple) and it keeps recurring, there may be some issue with the sebaceous gland from which the cyst is forming. Sometimes, the entire gland is removed (it's small, so it's not like major surgery; my friend's GSD had a recurring one on his tail that would grow fairly large. They had it removed while he was under for something else and I think he had all of two stitches ). Hope it's nothing major. FWIW, Turbo gets a recurring black bloody scab on his butt in the same place. I've thought it was a tick several times and pulled it off, only to have it bleed all over the place. I've learned my lesson to check more carefully now before I pull anything off Anyway, my vet said it was nothing to be concerned about.

Edited December 16, 2009 by turbotaina

[Guest jettcricket]

Yep....Jett's kept on coming back in the same spot too. That's why I was starting to worry a bit. I remember when I took him to have it cut off....the damn thing was so tiny that the vet tech keep on looking at me like I was crazy. Dr. Carlson told her, "Don't drop it or will never find it"....

[Guest bigbrindlebunny]

Yeah, that must be it. My Vet called it a blood pimple. When I researched Hemangiomas

http://www.merckveterinarymanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/72221.htm after reading the earlier posting, I saw that it's also known as a blood blister. It was termed pre-Cancerous, but that still scary stuff to an unknowledgeable reader. So thanks for your note Meredith, my Vet seems to agree with you on not worrying about it.

 

[Hawthorn]

Both mine had one of these. I had them removed and biopsied and both were cutaneous hemangioma: benign, but could turn into the malignant version - cutaneous hemangiosarcoma - if left. It's a good idea to take some pictures to show your vet.

Was it as small as the the link that I provided on Jett's belly? I'm surprised....I only wanted my vet to do a biopsy, cause it keep bleeding, scabing and coming back. Jett did get a few more, but most of them went away on there own.

 

I think Sunny's and Sophie's were about that size at their largest, although in the early stages they were probably smaller than that.

 

Initially they looked just like tiny blood blisters, which would grow and then turn into a scab which would eventually fall off, only for a blood blister to form again in the same spot. Our vet said they were just blood blisters and were nothing to worry about but the fact that they kept reappearing in the same spot over several months bothered me so I eventually asked for them to be removed and biopsied. The pathology report said they were cutaneous hemangiomas and, although they were benign, they could turn into the malignant form of cutaneous hemangiosarcoma, if they were not removed. Our vet said he had never seen one before in 20 years of practice. Personally, if I see another one of these on either of mine, I'll most likely have it removed.

 

This is a picture of Sophie's in its very early stage; as it progressed, the redness around it would disappear and the blood blister would get bigger before it turned into a scab and fell off but I don't have any pictures of it in those stages.

 

 

Can I ask over what period of time Jett's disappeared? Sunny and Sophie both had theirs for several months before I had them removed.

[Guest jettcricket]

The one on his belly kept on coming back so that's when I took him and had it removed. I'm trying to remember with the other ones, but that's when Jett developed mast cell cancer, which is eventually what we lost him too, so I was much more worried about that then the tiny growths.

 

I'm thinking maybe 3 weeks or so...they didn't go away for a while, but they did disappear.

[Guest johnandheidi]

So weird, we just found something similar on Walter's chest. When we first noticed it, we thought he had something sticky embedded in his chest fur and tried to "remove" it. We cleaned it with warm water thinking that might release whatever it was. But, since it wouldn't come off very easily we just left it. The following day, we noticed it was slightly raised at the edges and figured it must be a scab. Being the bad human that I am, I removed it. It came off pretty easily and was only a little bloody. The area under the scab looked sort of like a pock mark. We cleaned him up, cut the hair around it, and put some neosporine on it. The wound scabbed over again and grew smaller little by little until it disappeared.

 

Our first thought after removing the scab was that maybe a tick had embedded itself; we'd recently found a tick on our other grey, Jeff, so it was fresh in our mind. But, there was no evidence of a tick. I'm still very confused about what caused the initial wound.

 

 

Thanks for posting this question. This thread has been so helpful.

[tamborine]

The one on his belly kept on coming back so that's when I took him and had it removed. I'm trying to remember with the other ones, but that's when Jett developed mast cell cancer, which is eventually what we lost him too, so I was much more worried about that then the tiny growths.

 

My Odd Cat had several of those things on various parts of his body. A few different vets all told me they were nothing to worry about. Odd Cat developed mast cell cancer, too (very aggressive - ultimately caused his death despite surgery & chemo). He had cutaneous mast cell tumors which eventually spread internally. I can't help but think that there was a connection between these bloody little growths and the mast cell cancer.

[Hawthorn]

The one on his belly kept on coming back so that's when I took him and had it removed. I'm trying to remember with the other ones, but that's when Jett developed mast cell cancer, which is eventually what we lost him too, so I was much more worried about that then the tiny growths.

 

My Odd Cat had several of those things on various parts of his body. A few different vets all told me they were nothing to worry about. Odd Cat developed mast cell cancer, too (very aggressive - ultimately caused his death despite surgery & chemo). He had cutaneous mast cell tumors which eventually spread internally. I can't help but think that there was a connection between these bloody little growths and the mast cell cancer.

 

Could well be - I remember that Sunny's pathology report said that because he'd had one of these cutaneous hemangiomas, he is more likely to develop other skin cancers in the future, which is why I prefer to get lumps and bumps removed if there is any doubt about what they are. I don't always believe vets who say that things are "nothing to worry about": although they know a lot, they are only human and make mistakes just like the rest of us.