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My dog's cancer lumps are weeping. How to stop her from scratching?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed | Female | 11 years and 2 months old | 8 lbs

My Shih Tzu havanese is 11 yrs diagnosed with cancer mams. She had surgery in October and it got worse. Recently she scratched the area which is under her right armpit and open up the lumps. Now they are weeping. My question is how do I stop the weeping and how do I stop her from scratching it.? I do keep her covered at all times except for when I'm cleaning the wounds. I also lightly blow dry the area so it stays dry and I use Pet silver wound spray. She takes CBD, Prednisone salmon oil

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1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Strydom, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on March 7th, 2024

Hello, thank you for using PetCoach. I'm sorry you and Pitoune are dealing with this. Please be advised that to prevent this from happening to future pets, they need to be spayed before their first heat cycle. The chance of getting mammary tumors is virtually zero when a female dog is spayed young. It is very difficult for me to tell the orientation of what is going on in this photo. I'm assuming the photo is of the abdomen since you said they are mammary tumors but again, it is hard to tell what is going on based on this one photo. You are not going to get these to clear up and will likely only get worse; they are malignant cancer. They will only stop weeping when she stops scratching them. All you can do is exactly what you are doing although I don't think you should blow dry them - it is very easy to burn the skin making it worse. Everything else you are doing is fine. I'm not sure what you are using to cover her but I suggest a recovery suit and to put a feminine maxi pad between the skin lesions and the suit to catch any discharge. This protective layer should stop her from traumatizing the area. You can also put a human baby sock on her back feet so it covers the nails so if she does scratch she cannot hurt the area. ( https://www.amazon.com/s?k=surgery+suit+small+dog&crid=ZTVVO4IRU78L&sprefix=surgery+suit+small+dog%2Caps%2C120&ref=nb_sb_noss_1 ) If they are worsening I suggest you speak to your vet about possibly increasing the dose of Prednisone. Hope this helps. Best wishes.

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