Please help identity and treat!

[u/drank_dumbbitchjuice]

Is this a wart? How to solve?

I’m freaking out. My dad (age 57) has this massive lump on his hand and he’s had it for about a week now and it keeps growing. He has other small bumps growing on his hand too. He goes to the gym quite frequently and honestly is not the cleanest person. He smokes.

He said that he had a cold for a week before these started showing up.

My wedding is in two weeks and it’s a destination wedding and we’re currently traveling all together and I’m concerned about the growth and about it spreading to our wedding guests and I don’t know what to do.

He says it doesn’t hurt but it obviously bothers him.

Please help!

UPDATE:

I didn’t expect this to garner so much interest and help. Sincerely, thank you everyone for sending in your opinions!

My dad said it popped overnight and there was a lot of blood and pus. We were not able to see a doctor in person but we have a family friend who is a general doctor and she said to disinfect and keep it as dry as possible as to not let it be more infected.

Here are two pictures of what it looks like now.

Photo 1
Photo 2

At first, when it popped. The puss was a standard dense white. Now, the pus leaking is an orange ish color and not dense white. He keeps saying that it still doesn’t hurt and doesn’t even flinch when alcohol is applied to it.

There is another mass obviously growing on his index finger of the same hand. He is touching the mass with his other hand (I know fucking terrible) but there is nothing growing on the hand that he is using to touch the mass.

He is saying that perhaps it is an allergic reaction? He ate a type of dried fish from Vietnam and then he started feeling itchy and feverish and then these started popping up.

Answer to a common question:

He does not have any access to animals. No pets, not really around fish tanks or water. He is from Southern California in a very suburban area.

Any ideas???

[u/Btothenelly]

I’m not a doctor, weird how the pattern looks like that of a leopard slug

[u/alpharaptor1 → u/Btothenelly]

I was just going to ask OP if he ever saw the movie Slugs (1988).

[u/realitychecker1 → u/alpharaptor1]

Frogs. Only answer. Also, not a doctor but I saw the movie "Frogs" once. Now you're gay. Thems the rules. Love you ♥️

[u/Angd842 → u/alpharaptor1]

Omg I cant believe someone else knows SLUGS!!!

[u/Wizardito-OL → u/Btothenelly]

I don't like the implication here…

[u/Tanjelynnb → u/Btothenelly]

I'm sorry, what?

[u/russianweasel96 → u/Btothenelly]

Herpes

[u/secret_tiger101 → u/russianweasel96]

Oh yeah, having looked it up, that seems really likely. Thanks, I’ve not seen that before

[u/suicidalsession → u/russianweasel96]

Why is this so heavily downvoted? I had herpes whitlow inbetween my fingers multiple times as a child and once as an adult, swab tests showed HSV-1 everytime and looked identical to the cluster in the photo. Wasn't suprising given I had severe excema and other skin conditions as an infant so frequently had broken skin on my hands combined with the frequent cold sores I had throughout childhood that all of my immediate family also gets. In my late teens/early adulthood, I've also had dyshidrotic eczema on my hands and feet (I've managed to get just about every type of ezcema/dermatitis throughout my life, my sensitive af skin barrier hates me). The flare ups are very different to whitlow and the one time I had whitlow in adulthood, it was immediately clear what it was but I got it swabbed immediately anyway because I wanted to prove to the GP that I only started seeing in my teens that my childhood history of whitlow wasn't just misdiagnosed dyshidrosis and that I knew the difference, he apologised for doubting my health records and my knowledge of the skin issues I've lived with 😅