PLEASE HELP WHAT IS THIS?

Hi Vets, Our cat is otherwise acting normal and fine. This does not seem to hurt him in any way. This is the closest we have been able to get for a picture though. We got him from a shelter after abuse. Have had him almost 5 years and are just starting to be able to slowly pick him up. Could this be a cyst or tumor? Something needing a vet soon or possibly something else? Never seen anything like it on him before or our dog. Thank you so much for any thoughts!

Hello!  From that angle it could even be a tick, but you can probably rule a tick out my yourself - they are attached to the hosts' body only at one end / side and you could slide a bit of paper under them, between the tick and the hosts' body, if you slid it in from the other side.   Assuming that it's not a tick, it could be neoplastic - cancerous - and those can be benign or neoplastic (spreading).  Or it could be inflammatory, which comes in various different forms, including cysts or foreign body reactions etc.    Best to present at your vets surgery so that they can tell the difference for you - often this requires biopsy of some description or removal.   If you go to our blog and search for lumps, you'll find a range of different articles about this subject.   Best of luck!

Correction - the term for a neoplasm (cancer) that is not benign is malignant.   I wrote neoplastic again by mistake.  My apologies.