Not sure what this is (ear) UPDATE - it is a histiocytoma

[siam]

Alfie's been fine all day until a short time ago when he kept on really shaking his head off and on for 20mins and it seemed he has a problem with his right ear. I lifted it up and looked inside and just at the top he has this very angry brightly coloured lump which is about 1cm diameter. It looks a bit like an extremely large tick but I've never seen one that bright in colour and I thought it's unlikely with this cold spell of weather we're having (- 6 overnight) for ticks to be about and we've not been in woodland recently, but not sure what else it could be. I didn't want to do any touching as it was aggravating him so much and with the position it's in I'm frightened  to attempt taking tweezers to it in case I cause any damage to his ear and I'm not 100% sure it is a tick. Any ideas or suggestions please? 
Sorry this photo is not clear as I'm on my own just now and it was hard keeping his ear up and taking the photo.

[elaine.e]

If it was a tick I doubt it would be this colour and you'd be able to see legs.

The only thing I can think of is an aural haematoma, but that's purely guesswork on my part as I've never seen one, I just know that dogs can get them.

It's very angry looking and all I can think of to suggest is to take him to the vet in the morning if it's still there and try to stop him from shaking his head in the meantime. Does your vet have an out of hours service that you can phone for advice?

[Panda]

Rolo had a lump on his ear which looked very similar to this , it looked like a tick but turned out to be a Histiocytoma (not sure if that's how you spell it) - he had tests at the vet to rule out a tumour and we were advised it would fall off on its own in the end. It did fall off but was pretty disgusting

[siam]

Thanks for both your replies. It seems strange how suddenly and acutely it started bothering him. Fortunately he is much calmer now and has stopped shaking his head. If he remains like this until bedtime I'll wait and phone the vet first thing, otherwise there  is an out of hours vet service I can phone for advice.

[siam]

Have just looked at some pictures of histiocytoma and that looks very like what I'm seeing in Alfie's ear. I'll see what the vet says tomorrow. The main thing is that he's settled and not agitated as he was earlier.

[lescef]

When I saw the photo i thought of a histiocytoma, but wasn't sure if they appeared in the ear. Bramble had one on her body that appeared from nowhere. Hopefulky,  it will be as they are harmless. .

[Redked]

Was also going to say hystiocytoma. Bonnie had one on her leg. Get said it would disappear eventually and it did. However, on her leg, Bonnie was able to bite at it constantly and made it so sore and caused bald patches before it disappeared  Hope that is all it is and if so, with it being on his ear, at least Alfie can't pick at it and make it worse xxx

[linda c]

Blue also had this on his ear and that was a Histiocytoma. My Vet checked it out and said it would go on it's own which it did in 3 weeks it was gone.
If it's in a place where it doesn't bother them it's not removed and just left alone.😃

[siam]

I had Alfie at the vet's this morning. It is a histiocytoma he has. It was less angry and swollen this morning and the vet thinks it may have burst. His temperature was raised so he's on a week of antibiotics, had an anti-inflammatory injection, is on Piriton 3 times daily & Fuciderm applied 3 times daily. He also has cream to go in his eye twice daily as its a bit pinky with a slight discharge. I've to take him back next week and if all's well nothing further needs to be done. However if it keeps recurring they'll will remove it because of the awkward position it's in at the beginning of the ear canal and if he scratches a lot with his back foot he would need to get a collar so fingers crossed none of the latter 2 is required.

[PennyB]

When I saw the photo i thought of a histiocytoma, but wasn't sure if they appeared in the ear. Bramble had one on her body that appeared from nowhere. Hopefulky,  it will be as they are harmless. .

they do appear on the ear - and so extremely rarely anything other than benign but as with all lumps see your vet

[siam]

When I saw the photo i thought of a histiocytoma, but wasn't sure if they appeared in the ear. Bramble had one on her body that appeared from nowhere. Hopefulky,  it will be as they are harmless. .

they do appear on the ear - and so extremely rarely anything other than benign but as with all lumps see your vet

I took Alfie to the vet this morning to get checked out (see post above yours).

[linda c]

Lets hope it clears up and the Fuciderm helps. It does seem a common thing, have heard of quite a few dogs that have had these, they come up so rapidly you always start to worry. Then they just go  just another of those things to concern us. 

[PennyB]

my vet has done a fine needle aspirate before now as they often respond to disruption of the cells and it then in theory heals itself - some can be quite persistent though and take a while

[siam]

I had Alfie back to the vet's for his follow-up visit. There isn't any significant change in the histiocytoma so the vet has aspirated it and is sending a sample away to cytology. He has been given more antibiotics, another anti-inflammatory injection and we've to continue with the piriton and fuciderm. We'll get the results in 7 -10 days with a recommendation of whether it should be removed surgically or not. Alfie is fine in himself and he isn't shaking his head overmuch nor scratching it so am hoping by the time the results come back it will have calmed down more. 

[chrisp]

After Mollie had her hystiocytoma aspirated, it seemed to suddenly start to go away.  Don't know whether it was due to it being popped/disturbed, but it suddenly started to shrink and literally disappeared as fast as it arrived.