Lump on dog's jaw

I noticed today that my dog has a lump on one side of his bottom jaw, kind of along the outside of the gum/lip. It's about half the size of a ping pong ball, although it's a flat kind of swelling rather than a round shape. It is rock hard, and I'm sure it wasn't there yesterday, dont know about last night because I fed him in the dark. I only took him to the vet yesterday to get his yearly vaccinations, but have an appointment tomorrow morning to have him looked at. Can't complain too much though, he is 2 and a bit and it's the first time he's been to the vet for anything other than his vaccinations!

Just curious I guess if anyone knows what it might be...it is really really hard so I don't think it is filled with fluid so probably not an abscess... It's not bothering him too much, he's still eating and is his normal bouncy self, but it does hurt him if you press on it. if he was a person it's kinda like he got punched in the mouth and now has a big bump there! I thought maybe a sting from a wasp/bee although that's rather unlikely...he does like chewing on wood/sticks so maybe something got stuck in his jaw and has swollen up because of that, but it's hard to tell if anything is in there because it's so hard and you can't manipulate it.

silly boy :rolleyes:

The things that cross my mind you have already mentioned - dental abscess, sting or bite, inflammation from an injury. Can you get a look in his mouth?

Oh ouch poor boy!! hope hes ok :)

from what I can see his mouth looks normal, his jaw is just a bit enlarged on one side! Could be a tooth problem I suppose although his teeth have always been pretty good, but if he got a sliver of wood in there it could have caused a problem. Dumb dog has a million toys to chew on but chooses pieces of wood instead :rolleyes:

Is there any smell in his mouth and is he eating ok? If you have a thermometer you can check his temp as an abscess would start to show one. If it a bite it should be gone in the morning. If it is worse it is probably more likely to be abcess or something. Poor little doggie! Hopefully it will go down

It was still about the same this morning, so off we went to the vet. He thinks it's an abscess and that it's starting to get a soft spot so there could be something in it. He's got antibiotics for 5 days (twice a day) and if it's not getting better by Monday we have to go back in and he gets sedated and has it lanced. Fingers crossed it improves, dont really need to have a third trip to the vets in a week! At least he was nice enough not to charge a consult fee since we were only in there on Tuesday :)

That's good news about the charges at least SS :hug: Good luck for him.

Fingers crossed the ABs work and you can have a break from your vet!