"human-Like White Toenails" That Grow Out Of The Skin

[Kathy]

I don't know how else to describe them. Has anyone else seen these on their greys? In the summer, my grey had a bump on her ear and something that I thought might be a stinger from a bee or a splinter from a twig "grew" out of the skin - I thought it was the skin "forcing" the foreign object out with time. But during the winter, another "grew" out from the ear spot. And she just had one "grow" out of her shoulder. It is....like a flat whitish toenail - there is no blood, or infection-like pus - it is just a hard thing...and you can snap it off once it is out from the skin. I feel the "bump" under the skin still where they have been. I asked the vet about her ear one but he seemed to think because it was such a small bump that it was hard to locate to show him that it was of no concern.

[macoduck]

Not on my dogs but there has been mention of something like this on GT before. Hopefully someone with a better memory than me will post about it.

[PrairieProf]

Sounds like what's known as a cutaneous horn -- you can Google it.

[Hubcitypam]

Sounds like it might be what Poodle has -- here are emails between me and my vet...

Me:

...just wanted to pick your brain about Poodle. Like all old dogs he gets skin flaps and such, but one is/was really weird. It is right behind his ear. Once when he was really fluffy in

the last year it sort of grew into sort of a striated (sp) white cone. It was creepy but the top of the cone would come off in my fingers. When he gets groomed sometimes his flaps get nicked, but last time he was groomed this weird one didn't as far as I could tell. A week or so after grooming it started bleeding a bit and Barkley became obessed with it for a bit -- not sure which came first.

Answer:

Poodle's little growth sounds exactly like a benign sebaceous adenoma- which are very common in older dogs. They do not cause any problems besides bleeding sometimes after the coming home from the groomer and being an eye sore. I always offer owners the chance to take these off. I take off about two per week. Because they always happen to older dogs- I never put them under general anesthesia- I use Bupivacaine as a local nerve block and laser it off. This procedure only takes minutes and patients are completely awake and pain free. If it is large, it may require a suture or two (but usually do not require any sutures).

Edited April 14, 2012 by Hubcitypam

[Kathy]

Thanks for the responses - when googling "cutaneous horn in canines" it came up with some images and one looked EXACTLY like what my grey has had. I'm glad to know what it is.

[Guest DragonflyDM]

But I had never seen cutaneous horns on people before!!!

 

[XTRAWLD]

Gross. I just learned my new thing for the day!

[Guest KennelMom]

Echo gets those! More of them as she gets older...theyre weird for sure but the vet said they're nothing to worry about.

[greysandmollie]

My Bounty used to get them....never bothered him....I never did anything about them...he unfortunately died fairly young (8) so not sure if they would have become problematic or not....

[JohnF]

Most likely a Sebaceous Cyst extruding its contents.

But what do I know except from what I've seen before (and I couldn't even work out what Peggy had on her skin the other day)... always best to ask a vet about any kind of unusual growth because the smaller it is the easier to fix.

[Kathy]

The vet said he could "punch" out the area to remove it when he has her under for her dental in three weeks. I asked him if it would be more pain "healing" than irritation she feels from having the one in her ear. Sometimes she claws at it with her paw. He thought the healing would be no big deal but it is strictly optional - he is neutral on the issue. The cost is about $100 to have him do that. Do you think she would be better off having it removed? The ear seems so delicate that having a hole out of it would really sting/hurt/ache in my mind....