Should i have to worry about my dogs skin growth?

my dog is 15 years old Shih Tzu and he had a good size lump on his back and my dad took him to the vet and they said it was a "growth" and i want to know if its a cancer i should be worried about. the dog bit the growth off but then it grow back and now its a larger lump then before and there is alot of black stuff around the growth. should i wash the black stuff around it off or will it bother the growth.i have read in many books that Shih Tzu have a life span of 12-16 years.so should i worry about the growth my dogs back or not. the dog seems liek it doesnt hurt him.

Should i have to worry about my dogs skin growth?
Is your dog neutered? If not you should get it done. Hormones can cause growths like that. I had a German Shepherd that wasn't fixed and he started getting growths like that. He too bit them off but they came back bigger than before..A vet cut one off to do a biopsy on it. No cancer. I took him to the vet, got him neutered and after a couple weeks the growths went away.... Well, Good Luck!
Reply:My dog had something sort of like that on his nose. Turns out it was a tumor. My suggestion is to get it checked out by various vets to get more than one opinion. Also the growth could be dangerous to a dog of such age. Even if its not bothering him, it could still do stuff to his health.
Reply:if it was my dog i would take him back to the vet or even a different one. Don't wait until it's to late.
Reply:Romaster is right................
Reply:A vet can easily check using a very fine needle to pull a few cells out of the growth , the dog does not even really feel it and send it away to check for cancer, most skin cancers if caught early enough are not a death sentence the vet simply cuts it away along with a margin of tissue to ensure they get it all and then sew the dog up and that is usually the end of it, waiting could cause it to spread to a point were it is inoperable
Reply:It could be tumor (which is what a growth is), but you can't know if it is cancerous or not until the vet performs certain tests. Since the first vet was unhelpful, I highly suggest that you get your dog to a new vet ASAP. If the growth is cancerous, it needs to be treated now before it spreads. Once the cancer spreads, it is going to be almost impossible and won't be able to be treated effectively. Cancers tend to spread to the lungs, which can cause breathing difficulty and ultimately death in dogs.





To get started, your vet will need to run a complete blood panel (they may refer to it as a "senior wellness panel"). They will also need to take chest xrays, and possibly a couple other xrays to see if the cancer has spread. From that point, your vet may be able to aspirate the tumor and then determine if it is cancerous. Otherwise, if your dog is determined healthy enough (by the complete blood panel), the vet may decide to operate on it and remove it.





If the tumor is not cancerous, it is "benign." Unless it is growing in such a way that it bothers the dog or poses a risk to its physical health, the vet may not bother removing it (esp since teh dog is 15 yrs old).





Finally, although a lot of dog books state the life span is 12-16, that is just a general range. My family has raised shih tzus for many years, and with my experience, they tend to live to 17-18 if they are taken care of by their owners.





Good Luck with your dog. Please get him to a new vet, and I am sure he will be fine!