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Is freezing dog skin tags or warts at home safe and effective?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Small (up to 22lb) | Male | neutered | 7 years and 3 months old | 20 lbs

Can small sebaceous adenoms be frozen off? I cannot afford to have the vet do surgery every 2 months. If you can freeze these off, Could I learn to do this at home? I would only want the warts that give our dog trouble by biting a licking them or if they are too large. Thank you Linda

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA

Veterinarian, Certified Dog Trainer

Published on November 24th, 2016

Unfortunately, this is not likely to be something that you can do at home - cryosrugery is occasionally used for lesions like this in dogs, but this is not something that most general practitioners would have the necessary equipment to do. Over-the-counter products for human warts (like Dr. Scholl's "Freeze Off") are not approved for use on dogs, and would not be expected to be effective on sebaceous adenomas because these are quite different from warts at the cellular level - it's more likely that they would become irritated and inflamed by the treatment, rather than being successfully frozen off. I have never seen any other successful option for these growths apart from surgical removal as needed, unfortunately. If the growths are quite small, it may be possible to remove them with a local anesthetic and possibly a bit of light sedation - you could certainly talk with your vet about this option if you are concerned about costs, or risks of anesthesia.

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    Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    Surgical removal is the treatment of choice for sebaceous adenomas. Because they are benign, you can leave them alone and not have to remove them surgically. Freezing them off is not a treatment of choice, and even it was, it would not be something you would be able to do at home. You could actually do harm to your dog by trying to freeze it off yourself, so I would not recommend doing that. If they're not too big, you don't have to remove them, and you can leave them be.

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