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My puppy has a small, movable bump on his ribcage. What is it?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed | Male | neutered | 6 months and 30 days old | 30 lbs

Our pup developed this bump, it’s smaller than a dime and doesn’t bother him it seems. It looks like he scratched it but we can pull it and move the skin around it so it’s not attached to a bone and it’s on his side, closer to his tummy but definitely on the ribcage

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1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Massimo Orioles, DVM, Cert AVP, MRCVS

Veterinarian

Published on February 13th, 2019

This kind of lump/growth needs to be ideally assessed by your veterinarian to have a definitive and specific answer. Usually there are two ways your vet can do that a part from examining it directly during physical examination. A biopsy can be taken under local or general anesthetic, otherwise a smaller sample through a fine needle can be aspirated (this technique is called FNA= fine needle aspiration). Differentials include skin cysts, infections, benign (very common hystiocytoma for example) or more sinister type of tumors (unlikely given the age). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!

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