How to Treat Dog or Puppy Warts

When you find a wart on your puppy's face, the first thing you want to do is get rid of it. Unfortunately, taking your dog to the vet to remove a simple facial wart is probably a waste of time and money - and, it will cause your beloved dog needless pain. Best thing to do is read up and wait it out.

Things You'll Need

• A little internet time
• Some patience

Instructions

1. 

   First things first, check inside and outside of your dog's mouth. When it comes to puppy warts, you are usually dealing with more than one. Canine papilloma virus (COPV - what causes the warts) appears as cauliflower like warts.

   Go to this website to check what your dog has against the photo gallery there:

   http://www.caninepapillomavirus.com/canine-papilloma-photos/

2. 

   If you're relatively confident that your dog does indeed have COPV, the best thing you can do is watch and wait. A mild case of these warts will usually go away all by themselves about 45 days after starting. Thankfully for you, your dog's warts probably started a week or two before you even noticed. Once they look like the picture to the side, they will start to dramatically wither in 1-2 weeks.

3. 

   If, however, the warts start multiplying, head to your veterinarian. The warts could make it painful for your dog to eat or swallow if they progress into the throat. Otherwise, if you're just dealing with a few, your vet is unlikely to do much of anything as the main treatment is freezing them off - and this requires putting the dog under anesthesia - which is obviously not something you do lightly.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to have your dog avoid contact with other dogs while dealing with the warts. COPV is contagious.

• Don't try to yank off the warts yourself. They will come off, and once they start to, it will be only a couple of days before they're completely gone.

Resources

• How to House Train a Puppy