Warts in Dogs

Warts in dogs can appear on any area of the skin.

Warts don’t just crop up in humans; our four-legged friends get them too. But are warts in dogs dangerous, and what should you do if you spot these little skin changes on your pooch? This article will answer your most pressing queries.

Are Warts in Dogs Dangerous?
Symptoms: What Do Warts Look Like on a Dog?
Diagnosis: How Are Warts in Dogs Identified?
Treatment: How Are Warts in Dogs Treated?
Cause: What Causes Wart-Like Growth in Dogs?
Prognosis: What’s the Outlook?
Prevention: Can Warts in Dogs Be Avoided?

Are Warts in Dogs Dangerous?

Warts are often harmless and can disappear on their own. They’re benign tumours also known as papillomas, which can come in an array of shapes and colours.

Can a Wart Turn Malicious?

While most warts are harmless, there’s a chance they may irritate your dog due to their size or location. Furthermore, there’s a possibility that a wart could develop into a malignant skin tumour, such as squamous cell carcinoma.

If a wart becomes malignant, it could affect your dog’s health, especially if located on the paws.

Do Dogs Get Warts as They Age?

Any dog can get warts, regardless of breed, age, or sex. However, dogs with weakened immune systems are at a greater risk of getting them. Young dogs under the age of four are particularly prone to papillomas due to viral infection.

Old dog with warts — Warts in dogs often occur due to a viral infection but are usually harmless.

Symptoms: What Do Warts Look Like on a Dog?

Dog warts are often described as ‘cauliflower-like’ and can appear alone or in clusters. Not all warts are the same though – their colour and shape can vary, as can their consistency, ranging from soft to firm. As warts form in or on the skin, they move with it.

If a bacterial infection occurs at the wart site, it might become inflamed. Symptoms include swelling, redness, and in some cases, pus.

How Big Are Dog Warts?

Warts usually start as small papules about half a centimetre in size, but they can grow to warts of approximately two centimetres.

Common Sites for Warts on Dogs

As skin tumours, warts can pop up anywhere on the body’s skin-covered areas. This means papillomas in dogs aren’t just found on ears, limbs, or paw pads, but also on mucous membranes in the mouth or oesophagus. Some warts appear on the external genitalia too.

When Should I Show My Dog’s Warts to the Vet?

Since warts can resemble other tumours, it’s important that you get any growth checked by your vet. They can take a closer look and differentiate between malignant and benign skin tumours.

Diagnosis: How Are Warts in Dogs Identified?

Due to their distinctive appearance, dog owners or vets often suspect warts early on. To further scrutinise the extent of the growth, the vet might take a tissue sample and have it analysed in a lab.

Lab tests often involve histopathological or molecular biological methods – examining tissue samples under the microscope or conducting PCR tests.

Treatment: How Are Warts in Dogs Treated?

Young dogs usually see their warts disappear within a few weeks or months without needing treatment.

Wart Removal in Dogs: How It’s Done

If a wart is awkwardly positioned and affects certain bodily functions, like swallowing, it might need to be removed. This task should definitely be left to a vet!

The vet generally uses one of the following methods:

Medication for warts in dogs, including creams like Bleomycin or pills like Azithromycin
Removal by freezing, laser treatment, or excision

Antiviral Autovaccines

In severe cases of viral Papillomatosis, so-called antiviral autovaccines, personal vaccines against the virus, may be used.

To make these vaccines, the vet removes several papillomas and sends them soaked in saline solution to a specialised lab. There, they develop a vaccine to fight the virus causing the disease.

Cause: What Causes Wart-Like Growth in Dogs?

Dogs can develop warts through different methods: a viral infection or simply with age.

Virus-Induced Papillomatosis

In dogs, warts are often the result of a viral infection. The Canine Papillomatosis is an infectious disease affecting mainly puppies under two years of age.

It is caused by different Canine Papilloma Viruses (CPV) such as CPV-1. The time from infection to outbreak is around two to six months.

How do dogs contract CPV? Papillomaviruses are spread through direct contact from dog to dog, such as mutual licking. Since the virus can survive in the environment for a long time, dogs can also contract it through indirect contact. For example, your dog might play with a contaminated dog toy and the viruses might enter small wounds in the mouth’s mucosa.
Can humans get CPV? Papillomaviruses are highly specific. Therefore, humans cannot catch dog papillomaviruses.

Age-Related Warts

Warts in dogs can also develop without a viral infection. These “age warts” are common in older dogs, particularly within breeds like Cocker Spaniels and Kerry Blue Terriers.

Prognosis: What’s the Outlook?

The prognosis for warts in dogs is often positive, with papillomas in young dogs commonly healing on their own.

Note: After a CPV infection, the affected dog develops immunity. However, this defence is only effective against that specific virus strain, not others.

Prevention: Can Warts in Dogs Be Avoided?

There are various measures you can take to reduce the risk of your dog contracting warts. To prevent them from developing warts, consider the following advice:

Avoid contact with young dogs with warts: To prevent your dog from contracting papillomaviruses, keep it away from dogs with warts. Sometimes this isn’t possible, such as when there’s a second dog with warts in the household. In that case, hygiene is key. Keep dog toys, as well as drinking and feeding bowls, separate or clean them as often as possible.
Maintain a strong immune system: A weakened immune system makes your dog more prone to warts. Ensure your dog is fed and kept in a species-appropriate manner, and have its health regularly checked by a vet.

This article from zooplus Magazine is purely informative. If your pet is experiencing discomfort, contact your veterinarian for diagnosis and treatment.

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The products featured have been carefully selected by our editorial staff and are available at the zooplus online pet shop. The selection does not constitute advertising for the mentioned brands.

Franziska G., Veterinarian

At the Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen I was extensively trained as a veterinarian and was able to gain experience in various fields such as small animal, large animal and exotic animal medicine as well as pharmacology, pathology and food hygiene. Since then, I have been working not only as a veterinary author, but also on my scientifically driven dissertation. My goal is to better protect animals from pathogenic bacterial organisms in the future. Besides my veterinary knowledge, I also share my own experiences as a happy dog owner and can thus understand and enlighten fears and problems as well as other important questions about animal health.

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