A black lump on my dog, and it’s not a tick – What is Viral Papilloma

So you are wiping your dog after a walk or just petting your dog while watching TV, your hand brushes across your pup’s fur and then you feel it. A LUMP on the Dog.

A lump on the dog that wasn’t supposed to be there

Donna grew her first lump last year. The first time I felt it was on 10th Jan 2017. I remember the date exactly because I took pictures and sent it to friends.

“What is this?? Does it look like a tick to you?” I texted.

There was a lot of to and fro on text but still, I couldn’t be certain.

So in the middle of the night, we hauled the dog to the vet. It was crowded at United Veterinary Clinic. So we got one of the assistants to take a look at the “tick” on her inner left thigh.

“That’s not a tick. It’s a lump,” she informed me.

I wasn’t sure why my dog was suddenly growing a lump. But given how crowded the vet was, and it wasn’t our usual vet, I heeded the assistant’s advice to take Donna home. She told me to monitor the lump to see if it grew bigger.

Why a lump on the dog can be a concern

Sometimes a lump is not that great a concern. Old dogs, overweight dogs and even dogs of a certain breed, such as labradors, golden retrievers and corgis are quite prone to developing fatty lumps or ‘lipomas’, wrote Rayya the Vet in her blog post here.

‘These lumps are usually soft and unattached to the underlying tissue and benign.’ However, she also wrote that ‘these lumps must be closely monitored as they can occasionally become cancerous’.

A lump can also turn out to be a cyst, wart, abscess or a mast cell tumour. The last is the most common skin cancer in dogs, according to pets.webmd.com. Depending on what the lump is, we will of course experience varying levels of worry for the dog.

But without a diagnosis from the vet, I only knew at that point that Donna had a lump. I did not know what type of lump it was.

A lump that was worrying the dog

Days passed and I checked the lump every now and then. I worried if it was getting bigger? Was it causing the dog any discomfort because I can see her licking it at times.

When the lump started looking a little rough and bumpy, I decided I needed to consult the vet again just to put my mind at ease.

We waited for quite a while at the vet and Donna had fun checking out the other dogs there.

Watch this video on Youtube!

This is the picture I took of her lump while we were waiting for our turn at the vet.

Dr Gwenda Lowe at Brighton Vet examined Donna and advised that since the lump was on Donna’s skin, was movable and didn’t appear to be attached to anything inside, it was likely benign.

However, she also wrote on our invoice that this cannot be confirmed without a biopsy. She sent us off to think about whether we want to schedule a day surgery for removing the lump and sending it off for biopsy.

So Donna came home with an antiseptic wash and cream. They helped to bring down the redness and inflammation around the lesion created when she licked or nibbled at the lump.

The lesion healed and the lump started looking less dark within the week.

But towards the end of the month, it appeared to be bigger and fatter than it used to be. Maybe it had grown bigger, or maybe the dog is licking and nibbling it again because I can see redness around it. Whatever it is, it is affecting Donna’s quality of life and by extension my quality of life, we decided it needed to come out.

What was the lump on the dog?

The results from the biopsy showed that it is a viral papilloma caused by the canine papillomavirus.

It is most often seen in dogs less than 2 years of age, since their immune system is still developing and weaker at that young age. And it’s most frequently detected on the lips and muzzle and within the mouth because there’s how and where it’s commonly spread. The viral papilloma is typically described as having a flesh-coloured cauliflower-like appearance.

Senior dogs can have lower immunity to the canine papillomavirus, but it is not so common as for puppies

Donna’s case is perhaps not so common since she is close to 8 years when she got the lump. The lump was on the inside of her hind leg and not around her muzzle or in her mouth where they are more commonly found. The lump looked like a black nob or mole, unlike a cauliflower. So because of these factors, our vet did not immediately identify the lump as likely to be a viral papilloma. Instead, she recommended a surgical biopsy to find out what it was.

But an older dog like Donna can get a viral papilloma if she doesn’t have immunity to this virus. The canine papilloma virus is contagious and spreads through contact with other dogs. So Donna likely got it when another dog came into contact within the inside of her hind leg. Maybe when he was sniffing her there. This canine virus cannot spread to humans and cats, so no worries there.

According to Roger Welton, DVM, “Incubation from the time of infection to the development of papilloma warts is 1-2 months.” Since I first found the lump on Donna on 10th Jan 2017, this could mean Donna already came into contact with the virus as early as in November 2016. During this timeframe, she visited the daycare, went on walks, met unfamiliar dogs at the beach and even went to the groomer. Any of these situations could have exposed her to this virus.

A dog with warts is contagious to dogs with weaker immunity

“A dog with warts is extremely contagious (to puppies less than 2 and older dogs with lower immunity),” according to Blue Cross Animal Hospital on their article on the Canine Papilloma Virus.

Since Donna with her solitary lump on the leg was contagious to other dogs, I think we should have kept Donna away from other dogs at the point where we discovered it. But since we didn’t know it was a viral papilloma until we had it surgically removed for biopsy, we didn’t do that. :(

In general, there seems to be little prevention measures we can take when it comes to viral papillomas. There is a 1-2 month incubation period where a contagious dog at a dog run or a daycare or even at dog grooming can show zero outward signs during that time. So it is hard to detect.

Thankfully, ‘the papilloma warts themselves do not pose any significant danger to the infected dog,’ said Roger Welton, DVM on his post Papilloma Virus/Warts in Dog and Puppies.

Basically they are just ugly, but not life threatening. :P

Warts caused by the Papilloma Virus can spontaneously regress in time

The likelihood of the lump turning into a type of skin cancer is very rare. In fact, the lump may spontaneously regress in time when the virus is cleared.

Also see this post where a white patch appeared on Donna’s paw in March 2013 and disappeared in December 2013 – A White Patch on My Dog’s Paw.

Once the infected puppy grows older and develops his immune system fully, he will fight off the disease. The puppy will have immunity against the virus thereafter. It’s a bit like chicken pox in humans in that sense.

So it is actually not necessary to have the lump surgically removed.

That is, unless it was bothering the dog (like in Donna’s case). Or if it doesn’t regress by the 4th month, says Dr Gwenda from Brighton Vetcare. That is the point where there may be a concern that the lump may mutate into a cancerous tumour.

Even if the lump remained benign, leaving a contagious lump on Donna for months was not ideal for me. It would stop her from having a social life for an unhealthy and indefinite length of time.

Senior dogs with lower immunity to this virus need more care

“There are many strains of papillomaviruses,” says Dr Gwenda. “Dogs are immune to re-infection with the same strain of papillomavirus after the lesions regress.”

Dr Gwenda also said that since Donna was an older dog, she did not expect for her to be having a papillomatous wart at this age.

I asked the vet if this means Donna has low immunity in general. Dr Gwenda replied that that may not be the case. Donna may just have a lower immunity to this particular strain of virus she was infected with, if she had never been exposed to it before.

It is possible that Donna can grow new lumps if she did not develop immunity to the specific strain of virus she is weak towards. This can happen if she comes into contact with the virus again. This does make me think twice about letting Donna interact with unfamiliar puppies. Puppies have the highest incidence with this disease compared to dogs of other age groups.

Hopefully, Donna won’t come into contact with this virus too often because life can get inconvenient when she grows a contagious lump.

Is Donna no longer contagious once the wart is removed?

No one knows for sure how long dogs are contagious after the wart has been removed, said Dr Gwenda. A safe bet would be that she is likely to not be shedding if there are no new warts developing 3-4 weeks after the surgery.

And so that is why for a while even after the surgery, we kept Donna away from daycare and other dogs.

 

Many thanks to Dr Gwenda Lowe from Brighton Vet who took the time to answer my questions via email and reviewed my draft in case I made any factual mistakes or inaccuracies in the content. You can follow Brighton Vetcare on facebook for more health information and also meet more of their fluffy clients!

And many thanks to the clinic assistant at United Vet Clinic for taking a look at Donna’s lump despite how busy they were.

 

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C’mon Chit Chat

Have you heard of the Papilloma Virus before? Or do you know dogs who had it before?
Tell me more about your experiences in this area :)

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