I have a 2 year old bitch who has had a cyst on the underside of her tail, about 1/3 of the way down. It has always seemed hard until now. It almost feels like a zit, and I can only assume that it is filled with pus. Have any of you dealt with this, and if so, what is the best way to handle it?

One of my girls had the same thing. The vet aspirated it and said to leave it be as the fluid was clear. A year passed and it seemed like it was getting bigger so I had it removed. It ended up being ingrown hairs.

You need to have it checked, it might be something more than just a few ingrown hairs.

mast cell tumors act weird.

My girl is going to the vet tomorrow morning to have it checked out. Have had it looked at before, and was told to leave it alone. It isn't any bigger, but feels like there is a pus head on it now.

I neglected to put in the original post that she has had this since she was 6 months old.

I had a girl with just what you are describing. It was on the underside of the tail and was filled with fluid. Recommendation was to leave it alone and drain when necessary. I could drain it at home easily with a sterile needle and syringe. As my girl aged it tended to fill faster (when young we drained it every 6-9 months, when older every few months). She lived to be 1 month shy of 14 years old and it was never a concern. I would have your girls looked at but if the vet says it's nothing it likely is!

Laurie, I have a 8 year old who has what appears to be cyst on the underside of her tail. It's about the size of a golf ball. It hasn't changed in years. I can't remember exactly when I first found it, but she was fairly young; maybe since birth. It is not painful to her and does not seem to change in size.

I had one with the same thing and the vet said leave it alone. She was older than yours but lived a long life. Never got much bigger and really felt a little hard to the touch, never seemed to bother her. Vet go easy around the tail. Not much to work with and some have ended up having to bob tail off if messed with alot.

I don't know if this has any relevance, but when I was younger I had a branchial cleft cyst just below my jaw. Here's a description from the NIH

"Branchial cleft cysts form during development of the embryo. They occur when tissues in the neck and collarbone area (branchial cleft) fail to develop normally.

The birth defect may appear as open spaces called cleft sinuses, which may develop on one or both sides of the neck. A branchial cleft cyst may form from fluid drained from a sinus. The cyst or sinus can become infected."

Anyway, because my cyst was so close to facial nerves and important veins, I didn't have it removed until I was an adult.

I wonder if the cysts below the tail might be similar; I don't really know if dogs have similar issues in embryo tail development. Like someone else said, I would be worried about surgery in the tail injuring the nerves that operate the tail. I have no intention of doing anything to the one my girl has unless it becomes infected.

Just a thought. Don't have any idea if it has any merit.

I don't think the branchial cleft cyst would be the same. During embryonic development we actually have breaks in the body wall in the throat region, the remnants of ancestral gill slits. So it makes sense that sometimes these might not close properly and create a cyst. Nothing like that would occur in the tail region.

On the advice of my vet I once had a growth removed from a bitch in that region. It was threatening to occlude the anus. It was ingrown hair, too, but a fairly large area was involved. Prior to its removal we were actually concerned that it was malignant. This was about 25 years ago, so forgive me that I don't remember the details.

Been there, done that. My girl had a lump underneath her tail just a couple of inches from the top which was about the size of the top of my thumb. A vet tried to frighten me into having it removed, saying that she could lose her tail if it got to be too big and there wasn't enough skin left to cover it. I couldn't imagine my girl without her tail and did nothing. She had the lump for a few years and it didn't bother her.

I began to give her coconut oil because she was on a special diet for her liver, which didn't contain a lot of fat. It was only one teaspoon full a day and I gave it to her for about 6 months. One day, I noticed that the lump had completely gone!!!

Yup. My older girl here has had one since about 2 years of age. It fills over time and I aspirate it. It's been aspirated by my vet and analyzed and it's just lymph fluid.

My Vet said that it is a sabaceous cyst and she recommended doing nothing at this point. Her thought is that since she has had it for so long that it is possible that as a puppy she may have gotten something pushed through the skin and this pies of foreign matter is what is causing it. However, she feels like if she opens it up, she is also opening her up for more problems. She squeezed on it and it appeared to not be painful, and she got nothing out. So she said if it pops, we will clean it appropriately, and place her on antibiotics as needed. I was showing her a few months back, and a Judge, while going over her, said "you would be surprised the number of dogs that have that."