Eye growth/ulcer on 7 year old dog (pic included)

[notnowB]

Hi. Firstly, I am not asking anyone to diagnose. I will seek proper veterinary advice this week. It would simply be good to hear from anyone with experience of this kind of thing.
My 7 year old Shih Tzu boy has a sort of growth on the (bottom) rim of his eye. I'd say it has grown a bit bigger very recently. He is still very much himself, eating well etc, and it doesn't seem to cause any discomfort or pain.
I'll phone the vet tomorrow and get him booked in, but do you have any idea what it is or what lies ahead?
We love him so much and can't bear the thought of anything happening to him.
Thank you

Hmm, the photo maybe looks slightly worse than it is.
Hopefully this kind of thing is fairly common and nothing ominous.

My dog had this, it was just a cyst but as it was getting bigger the vet recommended removal. Quick operation and she was fine after

The vet said they were very common and usually benign

My dog has this; he's 12. Vet says she has biopsied very many and only one was ever cancerous.

Oh, thank you!

God, I really do love him so much and can't imagine my life without him.

One of my dogs developed one of these and it was a minor surgery to remove it. You can't leave it as he'll be able to see it and will keep rubbing at it until he ulcerates his cornea, which is a mega faff to sort out.

Booked into the vet for tomorrow morning.

How did it go at the vets, OP?

If it helps - I had a dog about, ooft, 30 years ago that had a cancerous growth in his eye - they took his eye out to get it all, he was totally fine before his stitches were even due out, wanting to run about, playing fetch, the works and he lived to be 15 until his back legs went and we had him PTS.

Not saying it is that btw, because tbh I can’t remember exactly what it looked like now, but, just, even if it’s bad news, it doesn’t mean a bad outcome.

@kingsleysbootlicker

Thank you for asking! He was taken to the vet's this morning, and the vet said that it is nothing to worry about. It's benign. He said that they will operate if it grows further, but for now he's satisfied enough to leave it.
This is better than I hoped. I was hit with a MASSIVE vet's bill for my cat just earlier this month, so I'm secretly pleased that all today cost me was the price of a consultation.

Thanks again everyone. You were really reassuring the other night when I posted. Funny how we tend to catastrophise at night in particular!

Oh, and no chance of it bursting (yuk, sorry) as it's a hard lump. He has a similar one on his side that was actually tested and found benign. This lump is apparently quite similar. Vet said to let him know if it appears to bother him, but so far so good.

Great news