Pet Cryosurgery
Many pets get benign nuisance skin lumps like skin tags, skin warts, and sebaceous adenomas.
Cryosurgery allows veterinarians to remove these types of superficial lumps without the need for your pet to have surgery with full anesthesia. These types of lumps can often be removed on an awake pet without any medication, but sometimes to help calm and relax your pet, pre-visit oral medications and/or a local lidocaine block may be suggested. As a result, cryosurgery allows veterinarians to remove certain lumps as a same-day outpatient procedure. Therefore, removing these lumps is more affordable and safer than the traditional methods. Recovery is quick and simple without the need for stitches or sutures. Cryosurgery can also be used to save time and surgical costs when we are performing other procedures that require full anesthesia, like dentistry.
Cryosurgery uses freezing temperatures to destroy the cells of diseased tissue. Once the freezing has occurred, the diseased tissue slowly dies, followed by normal tissue healing over a period of weeks. In many cases, and depending on the site and the condition, cryosurgery cures the disease. In some cases, more than one treatment may be needed for the therapy to be completely curative.
If your pet has a skin condition or other skin tag or tumour, send us some photos or book an appointment so we can evaluate it together in our clinic and decide if cryosurgery might be a good option for your pet.
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Two common lumps that can be easily removed with cryosurgery are listed below:
Pet Skin Tags
Skin tags are thin and floppy at the base. The entire skin tag may have a flattened appearance, or it may be slightly rounded and have a teardrop shape. Skin tags tend to dangle from the skin and, unlike warts, you can move skin tags back and forth with your fingers. Skin tags are usually the same colour as your dog’s skin.
Pet Sebaceous Adenomas
Sebaceous adenomas present themselves as elevated, nodular masses that typically range in size between that of a pea and a large marble. These tumours are most prevalent in dogs that are over 7 years of age and often present little or no discomfort to the dog. However, in some cases, they can be itchy and inflamed.
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