Should I be alarmed by this growth on her ear?

[smg1975]

Fiona is 1.5 years old, spayed, 59lbs. I'm pretty sure she's overweight for her height. Her coat is fairly thin compared to our other English, as we can see her skin through her fur on her sides, and his coat is much thicker, but he only weighs 52lbs at 2 years old.

About a month ago I felt what I thought was a tick on the underside of Fiona's ear. When I looked at it, it was a little smaller than a  pencil eraser, but was not a tick, it was a bump with a scab on it. Since we had just gotten the other English Bulldog and they had been roughhousing, I figured it was a boo boo and left it alone.

A week or so ago, I noticed that not only is it still there, but it is much larger. It is now as big around as a penny, and raised up about 1/2cm. I really looked at it this time and will describe it the best I can. It is flat on top, and scabbed over, though I have not seen her mess with it, and it doesn't appear to bother her at all. It does not feel like it is filled with any type of fluid, in fact, it is rather hard. I poked around seeing if it would "pop" but it would not.

From last week to this week, I think I notice some increase in the size- but still no difference in her behavior. She doesn't seem to know its there, and it definitely bothers me more than her. It is on the underside of her ear flap, near the tip, so really, the vet could just cut off the tip of her ear for all I care, I just wonder if I should be rushing her to the vet, or if I can take time to set some $ away, as we usually only go to the vet for rabies shots, spay/neuter, and emergencies. We give our own vaccines, etc.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

It would be best to have it biopsied, even though your dog's mass sounds as if it may be a benign dermal mass known as a histiocytoma.

Many dermal masses can appear the same on the surface, but they may look and behave differently microscopically.

[smg1975]

I just saw VanillaBean's question from a few days ago- her description of her dog's ear lump sounded like Fiona's, but when I looked at the pictures of her dogs ear, Fifi's doesnt look like that at all. When I picked off part of the scab to try to see if I could "pop" the lump, it bled a little, but not much. But I only picked off not even a quarter of the penny sized lump.
I will try to get pics, but this is my first time on the site and it might take me a while to figure it out when I get home tonight.