Dr. Tofflemire,
Please help me with my handsome old dog, Dusty, who has a growth on his eye! It has been there for a year or so and has slowly gotten bigger and I’m worried he’s going to hurt his eye. Can you tell me what’s happening?
Hi Becca,
It looks like Dusty’s developed a common issue of many middle-aged and older dogs, a skin mass! Although most skin and eyelid masses in dogs are benign, they can get large and quite bothersome, especially when they’re adjacent to sensitive areas, like the corneal surface of the eye. In a dog who is otherwise healthy, a minor procedure to remove the mass is usually worthwhile so that it never has the opportunity to harm his eye. Either complete excision or debulking and cryotherapy are well-established treatments. Check out some of my patients here! Just make sure the removed mass is evaluated via histopathology as a small proportion may be malignant.
-Dr. Tofflemire