My 14 wk old bitch puppy has what looks like a kind of wart on her vulva.  It doesn't seem to bother her, isn't itchy and she doesn't lick it excessively.  I'm just keeping an eye on it at the moment to see if it will go away, if it deteriorates I'll take her to the vet.  Does anyone have any idea what this could be??

Hiya,

I know dogs can get viral warts, but don't know much about them.  Any way I had a quick search around and found the below on a vetrinary website:

Warts in younger dogs are usually of an infectious nature. Canine viral papilloma is the official name of the condition. The virus is spread between dogs by physical contact during greeting or play behaviour. The warts are usually small, cauliflower-like in appearance and occur on the muzzle, lips and tongue. The virus can also be contracted on the skin around the anus or vulva. The incubation time from contact to development of warts is 1-2 months.

One thing I'm pretty sure is that they can be fairly easily spread so if your other doggies were to be licking her bits (which I'm sure they're much to polite for :-) ) then they could get them aswell and I think these viral warts are most common around the mouth.

Don't know if that helps.

Karen

Hi Karen, that's helpful - not sure if it's what she has.  She doesn't have any others, and none around the mouth or lips.  She's only 14 wks old, so if the incubation time is 1-2 months, she would have had to have contracted them at age 6-10 wks.  It's possible she got them at 10 wks, as that was her first contact with other strange dogs, but it would be a bit unlikely to have that happen the first week she was out.  My other dogs, I'm sure, have licked her bits - can't do anything to prevent that - so I guess I will just have to keep everything crossed it isn't this.