fatty cyst?

today i was petting my dog sky (a husky, possibly mix) and my girlfriend came across what appears to be a fatty cyst, atleast i think it is. she gets them on her dog (a havanese) and her mom describes them as 'extra nails' and this one looks the same on my dog, but he wont let me look at it closely, i guess hes afraid of me hurting him or this spot hurts him. is this what a fatty cyst is? and if so what causes it and what can i do to prevent them/get rid of this one? we got him from a shelter in october, they said he may be somewhere from 1-3 years old and hes a pretty lean dog so i think its a bit young for him to be getting these isnt it?

I would have the dog looked over by a Vet. That does seem young to start developing fatty deposits but I have seen many dogs at a young age develop them. My Rottie started developing some fatty deposits a year ago when she was 8 years. I knew what they were but just to err on the side of caution I had my Vet look at them. My dobe mix also had a wart on his eye area that I had removed. I always like to have growths looked at by the Vet.

Fatty tumors (Lipoma) are usually single, soft, domed nodule; and they can become very large. The vet will do a fine needle biopsy to rule out possible other causes of the cyst.

For the fatty deposits I found they basically stopped developing once I took my Rottie off commercial dog food and put her on home prepared. I also give her homeopathic calendula which is supposed to help keep them from growing. We have some small dogs that come in for grooming with fatty deposits bigger than the dog is, those deposits can get huge.