Papilloma

Hi, this is my first visit to this site. I live in Devon UK and have a 14/15 year old rescue Heinz 57 named Cass. She has a papilloma on the top of her head which started off looking like a normal wiggly wart. But then it went crusty and got knocked off leaving a raw place. It scabbed over but the same thing happened again. The vet has given me a tube of Fuciderm Gel. This helps it heal but then it crumbles away again leaving what looks like an ulcer. The young vet I saw today says this may keep on happening and we will just have to manage it using the gel when necessary. She feels it's not a good idea to use anaesthetic on a dog of her age although her heart is healthy. Has anyone else had this problem?

My Samoyed Selkie has the same thing, one on her head a couple on her back and one on her tail.. Like you I just clean and treat with fuciderm...

Sometimes the one on her head gets sore and filled up with goo, which I squeeze like a spot, clean up and cream.. She's 14 now and has had these for about the last 3 years... They don't seem to bother her too much.

Many thanks for your reply. I was worried it might actually be skin cancer. Now that I know of another case I will not worry so much. My vet did say that if the wound filled up with puss she might have to go on tablets rather than keep using the gel.

The one on Selkie's tail got knocked when she shoved her way through some blackberry bushes and got torn clean off once... It bled like you wouldn't believe particularly horrible on a big white fluffy dog! :P

Vet gave me a special wash and we just washed and treated it every day for a week or so until it healed up... Oddly that one never came back! The vet said they could cut them off, but Selkie's too old for anesthetic, so we just keep washing and ignoring them... She doesn't seem the least fussed by them

So far so good with my Cass. She knocked the scab off another twice so I cleaned it up again and got rid of the pus; applied the gel for a few more days and waited while it scabbed over again. Fingers crossed it looks as if it is now returning to something resembling normal She has now got another 2 coming so will have to keep an eye on them.