Lump on pony's ear

Sprogladite01

Sprogladite01

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My 11.1, 8 year old welsh sec a has a lump on his outer ear, near the tip. It's round, black, and non-ulcerated, I'd say pea-sized or possibly a bit smaller. He doesn't want it touched but he's never liked his ears being touched anyway to be fair.

My instinct says keep an eye on it and no need for a vet as he's otherwise well, but to be honest just want to make sure I'm not missing anything/check what others would do? And does anyone have any clue what it could possibly be?
 
I've seen sarcoids in this area, most that were left alone and didn't grow are still what they looked like originally, but one ulcerated and it was removed. The pony was much happier without it, though now he's got an oddly endearing little piece missing from his ear. It doesn't bother him. For what it's worth, the ones that were left well enough alone occasionally caused issues with putting on the bridle, so the owner started opening the cheek piece and popping the headpiece on like you would a headcollar.
 
I've had 2 with similar sounding things. Felt like a tiny hard pea under the skin, near the tip of the ear. In neither case did they ever amount to anything, in one it appeared very suddenly, the other had it when I got him. No heat, no real evidence they itched or hurt. My only guess was that it was a sort of response to a bite or thorn maybe even a tick head (!) that got grown over. I am a bit sarcoid paranoid so watched them like a hawk but did nothing.
Dog has 2 very similar lumps that I think are caused by thorns/grass-seeds that get completely embedded - because one worked its way to the top so we pulled it out and looked under a microscope (as you do!) and that was our best guess. I have something similar that formed from an insect bite, Dr said it was a dermatofibroma. Fancy name for lump of skin!
 
Thanks all, he's a strawberry roan so unlikely to be melanoma. I'll have to try and get a sneaky feel when he's eating or something because he is adamant about not touching ears - he's always been quite head shy (he was adopted from Redwings). Hopefully a bug bite and nothing more sinister but quite paranoid after losing my ridden horse, don't think I can take any more horse disasters at the moment!
 
Whatever it is I doubt if you'll have too much of an issue. If it does turn out to be nasty it's a really easy place to remove it with a decent margin, he might just have a bit of ear missing.
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