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Should I worry about a lump on my dog's chest near an old scratch?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Shar Pei | Male | 1 year and 6 months old | 50 lbs

Lump on his chest where a week or older scratch he received when he was outside but never seen lump until right now.

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1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Ann Dion, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on October 28th, 2018

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. The lump there could be from many different causes: 1. infected ball of pus under the skin from a previous wound. 2. A foreign object stuck under the skin from the wound 3. A lump there unrelated to the wound (lipoma, tumor, etc.) 4. Scar tissue and non-infected inflammation secondary to the wound. 5. Other causes. From the image the little red bit is suggestive that there might be a component of infection/inflammation ongoing, but overall it doesn't appear very angry or inflamed. Ideally I would recommend having it seen, and your vet will likely put a needle into it to see if it is a ball of infection or something else. Otherwise, if it isn't bothering Chase you can monitor it for now, and if it is getting smaller/going away don't worry, but if it is growing or hasn't started to shrink in 5-7 days I would get it checked. Best of luck with Chase!

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