Strange lump found on my dog's tail...?

I will confess that after just losing one of my golden's to cancer, I am very worried about my 3 1/2 year old German Shepherd. I was petting him over really good today...just checking him out today and I found a "tag" of sorts on his tail...it was about an inch long and hard. I dug through his hair and touched it and this hard mass of skin fell off. I then examined it closely and, this is nasty, but it is a definite hole with red lumpy tissue pushing through..the lump is hard. You can push the skin down around the lump so the skin is not attached to this lump. I do not know what to make of this and can not find anything on the internet that looks like it. Picture a donut with a hole in the middle and pushing a red napkin through it. That is what it looks like.

I would like to add that in the morning I am calling my vet so I am taking him into to be looked at when I can get him in. I am not going to let this go after losing my dog to oral squamous cell carcinoma just 2 1/2 mths ago.

Strange lump found on my dog's tail...?

Maybe it's a bad infection...try putting hydrogen peroxide on it, I'm glad you're going to the vet...I'll pray it's nothing serious...good luck!

Strange lump found on my dog's tail...?

hi it is what you call an abscess just get it cut off the dog will still have a stub trust me its not a big deal

Strange lump found on my dog's tail...?

I hope your dogs lump isnt anything bad!

I would listen to what the vet says about the lump is my answer.

Strange lump found on my dog's tail...?

If your dog goes outside alot this may be the problem. My dog had 9 puppies and instead of keeping them in the house, she dug a hole and put them in the dirt. After they started to stagger a little, we noticed that 2 of them had a large clump on their tail while another one had it on his foot. We washed it thinking that it was dirt and it didn't come off so we took one of them to the vet. The vet looked it over and he said that it was just a fungus from being in the dirt so he gave us some antibiotics spray and we sprayed them once a day. The clump was somewhat long and brown. It was dry looking and rusty looking. It also looked like the skin was peeling a little but when we toched it they didn't even flinch and they still have full feeling in their tails and feet.