Do dog warts go away on their own

How to get rid of warts

Warts are generally harmless and often disappear on their own over time, but they're unsightly. And some, like those found on the soles of the feet, can make walking and exercise painful. Wart removal can be a challenge, but fortunately, the most effective treatments are the least invasive.

Wart anatomy

What do warts look like?

Warts grow in the epidermis, the upper skin layer. A typical wart has a raised, rough surface. (Some, like those on the face, may be smooth and flat.) The center of a wart may be flecked with dark dots; these are capillaries that supply it with blood.

What causes skin warts

Warts occur when skin cells grow faster than normal because they are infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV). Among the 150 strains of HPV, about 10 cause cutaneous (skin) warts, including common, plantar, and flat warts (see "Common types of skin warts," below).

All of us come into contact with HPV repeatedly when we shake hands or touch a doorknob, for example but only some of us develop warts, and that's hard to explain. Children and people with immune system abnormalities are particularly vulnerable. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, so are people in certain occupations, such as meat, fish, and poultry handlers. But the most likely explanation is that some people are simply more prone to warts than others.

Certain other HPV strains cause genital and anal warts. They are transmitted through sexual contact. Some specific types of HPV can cause cellular changes in the cervix and anus that can become cancerous. But the HPV strains that cause skin warts have rarely been linked to skin cancer.

Common types of skin warts
Type	Appearance	Characteristics
Common	Raised, rough surface, sometimes with dark specks; light-colored to gray-brown.	Found mostly on the hands, but may appear anywhere. Those under or around the fingernails and toenails can be hard to treat.
Plantar	Rough, spongy surface kept flat by walking; gray or brown with dark specks.	Found only on the soles of the feet. Clustered plantar warts are called mosaic warts.
Flat	Flat or slightly raised; smooth and pink. Smaller than other warts.	Found mostly on the face, hands, and shins. They're less common than other warts, but when they do appear, it's often in large numbers.

How to treat skin warts

Studies indicate that about half of warts go away on their own within a year, and two-thirds within two years, so "watchful waiting" is definitely an option for new warts. But some experts recommend immediate treatment to reduce the amount of virus shed into nearby tissue and possibly lower the risk of recurrence. If you prefer not to wait it out, you have several treatment options:

At-home remedies for treating skin warts

Salicylic acid

• You can treat warts at home by applying salicylic acid, available without a prescription.
• Concentrations range from 17% to 40% (stronger concentrations should be used only for warts on thicker skin).
• Before applying the salicylic acid, be sure to soak the wart in warm water.
• File away the dead warty skin with an emery board or pumice stone, and apply the salicylic acid.
• Repeat the process daily or even twice a day.
• Salicylic acid is rarely painful. If the wart or the skin around the wart starts to feel sore, you should stop treatment for a short time.
• It can take many weeks of treatment to have good results, even when you do not stop treatment.
• Continuing treatment for a week or two after the wart goes away may help prevent recurrence.

Duct tape

• Low-risk, low-tech approach.
• You can leave the duct tape on overnight for about one month or until the wart is gone.
• Alternatively, keep the duct tape on for five to seven days, then remove it. You may need to repeat the cycle.
• Some studies suggest that silver duct tape works better because it is stickier.
• Why duct tape works isn't clear it may deprive the wart of oxygen, or perhaps dead skin and viral particles are removed along with the tape.
• Some people apply salicylic acid before covering the wart with duct tape. But be very careful to only apply the salicylic acid on the wart itself and let if fully dry before putting tape over it.

In-office treatments for skin warts

Freezing

• Also called cryotherapy.
• A clinician swabs or sprays liquid nitrogen onto the wart and a small surrounding area. The extreme cold (which may be as low as 321 F) burns the skin, causing pain, redness, and usually a blister.
• Getting rid of the wart this way usually takes three or four treatments, one every two to three weeks; any more than that probably won't help.
• After the skin has healed, apply salicylic acid to encourage more skin to peel off.
• Some individual trials have found salicylic acid and cryotherapy to be equally effective, with cure rates of 50% to 70%, but there is some evidence that cryotherapy is particularly effective for hand warts.

Other agents

• Warts that don't respond to standard therapies may be treated with prescription drugs.
• The topical immunotherapy drug imiquimod (Aldara) may be used to treat skin warts. Imiquimod is thought to work by causing an allergic response and irritation at the site of the wart.
• In an approach called intralesional immunotherapy, the wart is injected with a skin-test antigen (such as for mumps or Candida) in people who have demonstrated an immune response to the antigen.
• Other agents that may be used to treat recalcitrant warts are the chemotherapy drugs fluorouracil (5-FU), applied as a cream; and bleomycin, which is injected into the wart.
• All these treatments have side effects, and the evidence for their effectiveness is limited.

Zapping and cutting

• The technical name for this treatment is electrodesiccation (or cautery) and curettage.
• Using local anesthesia, the clinician dries the wart with an electric needle and scrapes it away with a scooplike instrument called a curette.
• This usually causes scarring (so does removing the wart with a scalpel, another option).
• It's usually reserved for warts that don't respond to other treatments and should generally be avoided on the soles of the feet.

Ask your dermatologist if you are unsure about the best way to treat a wart.

Frequently asked questions

How do warts go away naturally?

The body's immune system fights the viruses that cause warts. Over time, the warts disappear on their own. Studies have found that warts in children and teenagers disappeared after one year in half of the cases. However, the amount of time it takes for warts to go away depends on the type of the virus, the type of wart, and the health of the person.

Are warts contagious?

Skin warts aren't highly contagious. They can spread from person to person by direct contact, mainly through breaks in the skin. Theoretically, you can also pick up warts from surfaces such as locker room floors or showers, but there's no way to know how often this occurs.

Warts on one part of the body can be spread to other areas, so it's important to wash your hands and anything that touches your warts, such as nail files or pumice stones.

A wart virus infection is different from a bacterial infection such as strep throat, which can be caught, treated, and eradicated because it progresses in a distinct, reliable pattern. The ways of warts are much less predictable.

The wart virus resides in the upper layer of the skin, and who knows where or when you picked it up? The virus could have been there for years. Then it makes a wart for reasons we don't understand. And when the wart goes away, you can still find the virus in the epidermis.

When to see your clinician

Some skin cancers resemble warts at first. If you have a wart that doesn't change much in size, color, or shape, you probably don't need to see a clinician. But if you're in your 50s and develop new warts, consult a dermatologist. Be suspicious of any wart that bleeds or grows quickly.

Warts in Dogs

What Are Dog Warts?

Canine viral papillomatosis sounds serious, doesnt it? But the term is just a technical description for warts (papillomas) in dogs. While a diagnosis of dog warts is rarely serious, the condition is worth your attention, primarily so you dont confuse warts in dogs with other, nastier diseases.

Any dog can get warts, but they are more common in dogs who are immunosuppressed or spend a lot of time around other dogs. Young dogs frequently get warts in their mouths, while the skin of older dogs is more frequently affected. Certain breeds also seem to be at an increased risk of dog warts, including:

Symptoms of Dog Warts

Warts on dogs often look like a small head of cauliflower, but other, rarer types do exist, including an inverted papilloma (usually a firm lump with a dot in the middle) and dark, scaly plaques of skin that have an irregular surface.

Warts can develop in and around a dogs mouth, around the eyes, between the toes, and almost anywhere on the skin.

Some dogs develop one or just a few warts that are so small they are easy to overlook. In other cases, entire regions of a dogs body may be covered with warts of varying sizes. Warts in and around a dogs mouth may make it difficult for a dog to eat and drink normally. Warts on a dogs feet can cause lameness, particularly if the area is injured or becomes infected.

What Causes Dog Warts?

Warts in dogs are caused by infection with papillomaviruses. Many different types of canine papillomaviruses have been identified, and each type tends to cause a particular form of the disease (for example, warts in and around the mouth versus warts affecting the feet).

Dogs with warts are contagious to other dogs, but not to other animals or people. Once a dog has been infected with one type of papillomavirus, they are immune to that typebut not to others.

Papillomavirus can live in the environment for weeks, so its possible for a dog with warts to leave the virus behind in a particular area, leading to another dog contracting the virus from that location later. Papillomaviruses enter the body through a break in the skin, and infection develops when a dogs immune system cant fight off the virus before it takes hold. It generally takes four to six weeks for warts to develop after a dog is infected with papillomavirus.

How Veterinarians Diagnose Dog Warts

In most cases, a veterinarian can diagnose a dog wart with just a physical examination. If there are any questions about the diagnosis, the veterinarian can remove a sample of tissue and send it to a pathologist for identification.

Treating Dog Warts

Warts generally disappear on their own over six to eight weeks or so as the dog develops immunity against the virus. However, there are times when veterinary treatment is necessary:

• Sometimes dog warts are so numerous, large, or located in places that result in secondary symptoms like lameness, difficulty eating or drinking, or eye irritation.

• Warts may bleed or become infected with bacteria.

• In rare cases, warts that fail to resolve on their own can turn into cancerous tumors. In general, warts that are present for more than three to five months should be treated.

• Dogs who are taking immunosuppressive medications or have other, serious health conditions may be unable to get rid of warts without help.

• If just a single or small number of warts is of concern, surgical removal is the treatment of choice. This can be done with a scalpel, laser, or through cryosurgery (using intense cold to destroy the wart).

Medications are often necessary when a large number of warts are causing problems for the dog. Unfortunately, its difficult to assess how effective these treatments are since most dog warts disappear on their own. However, the following treatments have been tried by veterinarians:

• Interferon: an oral or injectable medication that stimulates the immune system

• Imiquimod: a topical antiviral and antitumor medication

• Cimetidine: an oral medication that may have a positive effect on the immune system

• Azithromycin: treatment with this oral antibiotic appeared effective in one study

• Immunostimulation: giving a vaccine made from a dogs own warts or Immunoregulin (a suspension of killed Propionibacterium acnes bacteria) can stimulate the immune system to respond against the virus

• Reduce immunosuppression: if possible, discontinue or reduce the dose of immunosuppressive drugs and more aggressively treat any diseases that are having an adverse effect on the dogs immune system

Preventing the Spread of Dog Warts

There are a few things you can do to help protect your dog from developing warts. Obviously, do not let your dog play with or have any contact with dogs who have visible warts. If the protective nature of your dogs skin is compromised (from wounds, rashes, etc.) or their immune system is not functioning normally, do not take them to areas where other dogs congregate like parks, doggy day cares, and kennels.

And if, despite your best efforts, your dog does develop warts, keep them isolated from other pups until all the warts have disappeared.

Featured Image: iStock/Rawpixel

WRITTEN BY

Jennifer Coates, DVM

Veterinarian

Dr. Jennifer Coates is an accomplished veterinarian, writer, editor, and consultant with years of experience in the fields of veterinary...