Skin tag or mole?

[lionessrampant]

So, today when I was doing my daily exam of the spot on leo where his hair thinned out, I noticed a little bump that looks like a little mole or skin tag. There is no scabbing, swelling, crust, pus, redness, or major irritation (other than some lingering minor irritation where Leo pulled his hair out- that doesn't appear to be bothering him, the pink is just slightly brighter)...in fact, it's pink and now that I look closer, appears to look identical to if a human had a big white head. It's no bigger than 3 or 4 mm in diameter, I would say. The hair looks like it's coming back a little bit, but slowly. He's no longer grooming a lot.

Does this sound like something serious, or can I wait until the weekend to go to the vet, and what procedure would you reccommend I have them do?

 

[xocats]

I do not think that your kitty's problem is an emergency but I think that it would be a good idea to have your vet look at it to rule out anything serious.

Here is a link to what I experienced recently with my kitty Sadie.
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73857

Let us know what you decide to do.

 

[lionessrampant]

sounds a lot like what Leo has. The more I read, the more I realize that it is probably nothing, and if that is the case I'll wait until his teeth cleaning in 3 or 4 months (when money isn't so tight) to get it removed.

It's always been there...I don't think I was clear on that, and it's always looked like this. All of his skin looks dry..not flaky, but just mildly irritated, which also happened to him last year with the radiator and winter season, so I've put him back on his fish oil supplement. The skin tag itself hasn't changed in size, shape or texture. My biggest concern is that it's right on the edge of where he lost all of this fur.

Now he has thicker baby fuzz there, but the fur is really slow coming back...if it IS coming back. My reading would suggest pyschogenic alopecia, since he had the huge string of stress that went something like this: Lola gets sick, passes away, new cat is immediately added, mom leaves town 10 days later for 2 weeks, during that 2 weeks he had to go stay in a strange house with 2 strange cats, one strange dog and 2 strange people, all the while, his Feliway diffuser had run out of juice.

Would it be too remote to suspect that the absence of the ever-present Feliway diffuser played a role in possible messing up Leo's hormones?

Stress seems to me to be a very likely cause...his herpes and feline acne also reared their ugly heads. Those two little monsters have been given the boot thanks to mommy's TLC, some Lysine, and some benzoyl peroxide, but we still have a quasi-bald spot.

 

[xocats]

I think that you are right on top of Leo's problem.

If you continue to watch it for any suspicious changes ...he should be fine until his dental.

I found that this Merck info. was interesting but way over my head.
At least it is there if you would like to check it out.
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/in.../toc_72200.htm

 

[lionessrampant]

Originally Posted by xocats

I think that you are right on top of Leo's problem.

If you continue to watch it for any suspicious changes ...he should be fine until his dental.

I found that this Merck info. was interesting but way over my head.
At least it is there if you would like to check it out.
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/in.../toc_72200.htm

I've made an appt. to have it looked at tomorrow. When I talked to the vet, he basically said that he's going to do a skin scraping, test it for parasites, etc., and if there are no parasites, then he's going to get a steroid shot and a hormone shot. If that doesn't solve the problem, then we'd move to immediate surgery on the mole. Otherwise, he said it SOUNDS like the mole can stay there until his dental. We just have to check for certain that the mole isn't CAUSING the hair loss.

Thanks for the link, I'll take a look at it.

 

[xocats]

I believe that when we discover something about our kitties health that is suspicious, it is best to have it checked out by our vets.
It's the old "better safe than sorry" thing.
Please let us know what you find out about Leo tomorrow.

 

[lionessrampant]

Originally Posted by xocats

I believe that when we discover something about our kitties health that is suspicious, it is best to have it checked out by our vets.
It's the old "better safe than sorry" thing.
Please let us know what you find out about Leo tomorrow.

Absolutely.

I will let you know. Hopefully it's nothing major and can be taken care of quickly and painlessly!

 

[goldenkitty45]

IMO moles are brown or black color. Skin tags are the color of the skin. Call your vet and ask them what they think. I'm guessing skin tag rather then a mole.