dog's skin turning dark?

[speckledfrog]

My dog normally has pink/white skin but at some point over the last few months it has started turning brown. Nothing else out of the ordinary. Has this happened to anyone else?

[peachykate]

Allergies. My Peanut's skin turns a browinsh/blackish color when his allergies start acting up.

[kellbell191]

It's also common when they're having thyroid or auto immune issues. Is he having any other problems? Hair loss?

[speckledfrog]

He has tons of allergy problems.

Kell, aside from scratching his ears/biting his feet(a year round issue treated with omega 3, and two allergy pills) there is nothing amiss. I'll give the vet a call, just to put my mind at ease.

[Jalapeñomel]

This happened to the corgi. I read that it´s common in older dogs.

But in Miranda´s case, she actually had worms in her liver that she got in Indiana somehow. We think that is what caused the discoloration of her skin.

[kellbell191]

Jun 21, 2012 11:01:06 GMT -5 speckledfrog said:

He has tons of allergy problems.

Kell, aside from scratching his ears/biting his feet(a year round issue treated with omega 3, and two allergy pills) there is nothing amiss. I'll give the vet a call, just to put my mind at ease.

Yeah, I would bet it is the allergies or the allergy medication then. Our allergy dog has some unexplained dark skin with fur loss. What does your dog take for allergies?

[speckledfrog]

Hydroxyzine for flare ups and prednisolone for when they hydroxyzine isn't cutting it.

[Deleted]

We started having problems similar to this with our jack russell and it turns out her thyroid had stopped functioning. She now has to take a pill twice a day and the spots have gotten much better. We used to think it was allergies but it turns out it was thyroid.

[adhdfashion]

Check the ingredients list on your doggy food, make sure they didn't "reformulate". :@ I had that happen to my little doggy. She had all kinds of food allergies.

[spk926]

It could also just be dry skin. Add some flax seed oil in with his/her food for awhile and you might see it improve. Dry skin in dogs can look very different than it does for us.

[kellbell191]

Yup, prednisone will turn their skin dark.

We used hydroxyzine for a year and zyrtec has worked nine million times better. Doggie allergies are a bitch.

[Jalapeñomel]

Jun 21, 2012 11:09:02 GMT -5 tarzanswife said:

We started having problems similar to this with our jack russell and it turns out her thyroid had stopped functioning. She now has to take a pill twice a day and the spots have gotten much better. We used to think it was allergies but it turns out it was thyroid.

How did you know something was wrong?

[Deleted]

Jun 21, 2012 12:49:22 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Jun 21, 2012 11:09:02 GMT -5 tarzanswife said:

We started having problems similar to this with our jack russell and it turns out her thyroid had stopped functioning. She now has to take a pill twice a day and the spots have gotten much better. We used to think it was allergies but it turns out it was thyroid.

How did you know something was wrong?

First she started getting black spots under her coat and then the spots would peel and her hair started to fall out in patches. She got really bloated and fat. She was throwing up all the time and would have runny poops. I had her at the vet all the time. We did elimination diets, adding vitamins to all the different foods we were trying, prednisone, etc.. Finally we tried a new vet who tested her for low thyroid and that was it. It took us awhile to figure out the correct dosage but now she is thin and healthy with a full coat. She's almost 12 and is doing quite well now.

[speckledfrog]

tarzan, that must have been so scary for you.

[Deleted]

OMG, so scary and soo expensive!! We got one of those Credit cards that vet's take and maxed the thing out TWICE. Seriously. We joke that she is the $10K dog. But we love her and she's been awesome so it was all worth it.

[kellbell191]

If you guys chose to do the thyroid test it is normally part of the $100 general blood panel, you can probably have them run the four factor test which includes thyroid for less. Tapazole is also hella cheap. The monthly blood work to recheck for the first few months is about $100 each time. Sounds like tarzan's was really pricey b.c. they were working on allergy diagnoses. We have easily spent 5k in two years on allergy related issues, the vet said it is one of the priciest and most common issues they see.

[Jalapeñomel]

Jun 21, 2012 13:36:17 GMT -5 kellbell191 said:

If you guys chose to do the thyroid test it is normally part of the $100 general blood panel, you can probably have them run the four factor test which includes thyroid for less. Tapazole is also hella cheap. The monthly blood work to recheck for the first few months is about $100 each time. Sounds like tarzan's was really pricey b.c. they were working on allergy diagnoses. We have easily spent 5k in two years on allergy related issues, the vet said it is one of the priciest and most common issues they see.

Tarzan, I cannot imagine how scary that was.

Miranda had a panel done about three months ago, because we wanted to get her teeth cleaned. But due to her age, they wanted to do a blood panel to make sure it was safe for her to undergo anesthesia. That´s how we found out about the worms in her liver. You would´ve never guessed anything was wrong though, because she acted totally normal.