A papilloma in dogs is a benign wart caused by canine papillomavirus, and it shows up most often around the mouth and lips of a dog under two years old. In most dogs, it clears on its own. It clears because the dog's immune system finally recognizes the virus and clears it, which is the part almost nobody explains. Canine papillomas regress when the dog mounts a cell-mediated immune response, so the real work is supporting the immune system doing the clearing, not attacking the wart.
So the better question is not how do I get rid of this wart. It is this: what is my dog's immune system carrying right now that is slowing it down?
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Here is what most pet parents are never told. You lift your dog's lip one evening, or you notice something on their muzzle that was not there last week, and there they are: small cauliflower bumps. You panic. You search. Every page says the same five words: it will resolve on its own. Nobody tells you why it happened to your dog, what it says about their immune system, or what you are supposed to do in the two or three months you are now waiting.
I know that evening well. Milka was around a year old when she got hers, and they came up on her muzzle.
We did three things while we waited. We kept her food fresh and species-appropriate, we stayed consistent with prebiotics and probiotics, and I gave her Rebalancer because of the Thuja in it. They cleared. I want to be careful with that sentence, because I cannot tell you which of the three mattered most, or whether her own immune system would have got there on the same timeline with none of them. What I can tell you is that it is what I would do again, and that all three work the same way: by taking load off the immune system instead of attacking the growths.
That waiting period is the part I want to talk about, because it is not empty time. It is the window where you can actually do something useful.
What is a papilloma in dogs?
A papilloma is a benign growth caused by a papillomavirus that is specific to dogs. According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, the lesions sit most often on the oral mucosa, at the corners of the lips and on the skin around the mouth, and they have a distinctive fingerlike or cauliflower surface. They tend to arrive suddenly and spread quickly across the mouth, which is exactly what makes them so frightening to look at.
They are most common in juvenile and adolescent dogs. The virus passes from dog to dog by direct contact and through shared objects like bowls, toys, and bedding, and it does not pass to people or to cats. The gap between exposure and the first visible growth runs around one to two months, which is why you will almost never be able to point at the dog who gave it to yours.
How long do dog warts take to go away?
Most oral papillomas clear within about three months. In one reported series, the period from the first sign of a growth to the first sign of it regressing ran four to eight weeks in around 65 percent of dogs, and nine to 21 weeks in around 21 percent. Skin papillomas are slower, and a veterinary dermatology brief notes they can sit for six to 12 months.
Once a dog has cleared them, reinfection is unlikely. The immune response that cleared the virus stays. That is genuinely good news, and it is worth holding onto while you are staring at your dog's mouth every morning.
Mark the date you first saw them on your phone. You will need it later, and memory is unreliable when you are worried.
Why did my dog get warts now?
Exposure is not enough on its own. Plenty of dogs meet this virus and never grow a single wart. What decides the outcome is the state of the immune system at the moment of exposure, and that is where the holistic view actually earns its place.
In a puppy, the answer is usually age. A young immune system has not met much yet, and papillomas are one of the most common things that happen while it is still learning.
In an adult dog, look at the last three months. Medication that suppresses the immune system is the clearest documented example: papillomatosis is a recognized side effect of cyclosporine in dogs, and in one published case a dog on long-term prednisone and cyclosporine developed dozens of papillomavirus-positive skin lesions over three years. Antibiotics matter too. In a randomized trial in healthy dogs, gut diversity and the dysbiosis index had still not returned to baseline nearly twelve weeks after a course finished, and a 2025 review of the canine gut microbiome describes immune regulation as one of its core jobs. If you want the longer version of that, I wrote about it in antibiotics for dogs and gut recovery.
Stress counts as a load as well. A new home, a new baby, boarding, a move. None of it shows up on bloodwork, and all of it is real.
Should I be worried, or is this normal?
This is the fork in the road, and it is the one most articles skip. A puppy with mouth warts and an eleven-year-old dog with several new growths are not the same story at all.
Scroll sideways to see the full table.
| What you are seeing | What it usually means | First move |
|---|---|---|
| Puppy, warts in the mouth | An immune system still maturing | Support, watch, note the date |
| Young adult, a few oral growths | Recent exposure, often daycare | Pause group play, support |
| Older dog, several new growths | Merck flags possible immune deficiency | Book the vet now |
| Any dog on long-term medication | A documented drug side effect | Raise it with your vet |
| Still there after three months | Outside the usual window | Vet check, ask about biopsy |
| Bleeding, smelly, hard to eat | Possible secondary infection | Vet, same week |
Never change or stop a prescribed medication because of something you read here, mine included. If a drug your dog needs is part of the picture, that is a conversation with your vet, not a decision you make at the kitchen table.
Are dog warts contagious?
To other dogs, yes. To you, no, and not to your cat either. The virus spreads by direct contact and by contaminated objects, so the practical steps are the boring ones: stop sharing bowls and toys, wash bedding, and keep your dog out of group settings while the growths are active.
Because the incubation gap is one to two months, a dog can be passing the virus around well before anyone sees a wart. This is also why daycares ask for a break that runs past the point where the growths disappear. Call yours and ask what their policy is rather than guessing.
What supports the immune system doing the work?
The honest answer is that nothing you buy clears a papilloma. The dog's own immune response does that. What you can do is take load off that system and give it better raw material while it works.
Food first, always. Fresh, species-appropriate food gives the body something to build with. The 2025 canine gut microbiome review describes the gut as a working partner of the immune system, not a separate department, and if you have read anything else of mine you will know why gut health sits underneath almost everything. Prebiotics and probiotics matter more than usual if your dog has had antibiotics in the last few months, and here is how I think about the difference between them. This was the piece I stayed most consistent with for Milka, and the one I would not skip.
Then lower the toxin load while the body is busy. Natural cleaning products, a kitchen-grade bowl instead of plastic, no air fresheners, no scented candles. These are small, cheap swaps and they stack.
What I would give, and in what order
Here is the order I would work through it, and I would not skip straight to step four.
- Write down the last three months. Vaccinations, medications, antibiotics, a house move, a new daycare. The cause is usually in that list.
- Feed fresh. Even partially. This is the lever with the most behind it.
- Rebuild the gut with prebiotics and probiotics, especially after antibiotics or steroids, and stay on it for months rather than weeks.
- Add targeted support if a vaccine sits in that three-month window.
- Leave the growth alone and let the immune response finish its job.
- Diarise three months from the date you first saw it, and book the vet if it is still there.
On step four: if your dog's warts turned up in the weeks after a vaccination, that is the piece I would act on, because vaccine reactions in dogs are well documented. A study of more than 1.2 million dogs recorded events within three days at 38.2 per 10,000, rising with each extra dose given at one visit, and a later study across 4.6 million dogs found the highest rates in small breeds. That is not me saying a vaccine caused your dog's warts, and I have not seen research that shows it does. It is me saying that a body working through a recent vaccine has less spare capacity, and that is worth supporting.
The one I gave Milka
Rebalancer
A homeopathic formula by Adored Beast, made to help the body clear what a vaccine carries with it without taking away what the vaccine is there to do. Its first ingredient is Thuja, the plant traditionally used for warty growths, and laboratory work on Thuja extracts shows antiviral and immune-stimulating activity. Controlled trials in human warts have been mixed, so I am telling you what it is rather than what it will do. The Thuja is the reason I had it on Milka's shelf when she was a year old.
- Homeopathic Thuja and Silicea
- Given by pump, into the mouth or on a little food
- Counted in pumps, not by body weight, for adult dogs
- Sits alongside veterinary care, never instead of it
What about the wart itself?
Leave it alone. Do not pick it, tie cotton around it, or put anything on it that you would not put in your dog's mouth, because almost everything ends up there eventually. There is no published evidence that any salve clears canine papillomavirus, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. The topical your vet may raise is imiquimod, which is prescription only and works by prompting a local immune response.
What a topical can honestly do is keep the skin around a growth comfortable when your dog is rubbing or licking at one, which happens more with skin papillomas than oral ones.
For the skin around it
REMEDY Salve
A hemp-infused topical for skin that is irritated, rubbed or licked. For skin growths rather than mouth ones, and for comfort rather than any claim about the virus. Let it absorb before your dog can lick it off.
See REMEDY SalveIf what you are actually looking at is a lump rather than a cluster of small cauliflower growths, that is a different conversation, and I covered it in my honest guide to mushroom supplements for dog lumps.
When to call your vet
Book an appointment if the growths are bleeding, smell bad, or are making it hard for your dog to eat, drink or swallow. Book one if they are still there after three months. Book one if your dog is older and has several new growths at once, because the Merck Veterinary Manual says plainly that an underlying immune deficiency should be suspected in that situation.
Your vet can confirm what it is, which matters because other growths look similar to the eye. For a dog that cannot eat or breathe comfortably, there are surgical and vaccine-based options, and in rare cases papillomaviruses have been linked to squamous cell carcinoma, which is the real reason a growth that overstays its window gets looked at properly.
Please keep in mind that I'm not a veterinarian, and this isn't medical advice. Every pet is unique, so I always recommend working alongside your vet, ideally a holistic or integrative vet, especially for anything ongoing or serious.
The bumps on Milka's muzzle taught me most of what I know about waiting out a thing I could not fix directly. The waiting is horrible, and I checked her face every single morning. But the body does know how to do this, and your job in those three months is to make that work easier, not to find something to attack.
Much love, Larry
Sources
- Mulherin B. Oral Papillomas in Dogs. MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual, reviewed 2024. View source
- Refractory Canine Oral Papillomatosis Case Study. MedVet. View source
- Ocular papillomas in dogs. SAVA VetNews, 2024. View source
- Grant D. Canine oral papillomatosis. Veterinary Practice. View source
- Callan MB et al. Multiple papillomavirus-associated lesions in a dog following chronic prednisone and cyclosporine. Veterinary Dermatology, 2005. View source
- Ullal T et al. Retrospective evaluation of cyclosporine in dogs. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 2019. View source
- Whittemore JC et al. Effects of Synbiotics on the Fecal Microbiome of Dogs Administered Antibiotics. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 2021. View source
- Understanding the diversity and roles of the canine gut microbiome, 2025. View source
- Biological Activities and Phytochemical Screening of Thuja occidentalis Extracts. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2025. View source
- Loonat A et al. Photodynamic Effects of Thuja occidentalis. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2022. View source
- Moore GE et al. Adverse events diagnosed within three days of vaccine administration in dogs. JAVMA, 2005. View source
- Understanding Risk for Vaccine Adverse Effects in Dogs. JAVMA, 2023. View source
