why is my white dog turning pink?

Question

have a border collie male 3 years old and its predominately white with black marks - for a few weeks now hes been scratching and parts of his coat and around his mouth is turning pink. Apart from that hes fine . Can anyone shed any light on this.

I have checked him for fleas and used a special flea shampoo just incase.....does not appear to be fleas but i have noticed that my hoover has more dog hair in lately than usual. For some reason hes shedding his coat. Thanks for the replies

Answer 1

He appears pink because that is normally the color of skin under a white coat. This would mean he's losing hair!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Often the bacteria from a dog's mouth can cause the white/light colored hair on a dog's face to become stained a red/pink color. I'd have a veterinarian look at his teeth to make sure he doesn't need a dental, and check his ears to make sure they're not infected. All of that is connected, so if he has eye trouble, ear trouble or mouth trouble, the bacteria count in his mouth can raise, and then the staining begins. If he's scratching his mouth, I'd bet that his teeth are dirty and need cleaned. Good luck.

Answer 4

i now whats wrong with him i also have a white dog with black spots and she started scratching a lot lately. Then one day I examined her fur with a brush and moved her fur and saw she had fleas. So I went to pet-co and bought her a green shampoo that's suppose to get rid of fleas. Then I took her a bath once every week and the fleas started dying. I noticed that since she had fleas she scracted constantly and her skin turned pink because of her scratching. Soon her skin was white again because of the flea shampoo. All you have to do is buy flea shampoo and wash your dog at least once a week with the flea shampoo. Also apply toothpaste yes toothpaste where ever you see your dog has a bite and has blood or where ever your dogs has pink skin. Toothpaste is known to stop itching which will make your dog feel better anbd its skin heal and turn white. Also fleas hate toothpaste so they wont bite your dog if they smell tooth-paste. Keep the toothpaste on until you take it a bath with flea shampoo. Then reaply it. Slowly your dogs skin will heal. Dont worry it worked for my dog too.

Answer 5

The pink colour is caused by the enzymes in his saliva oxidising in the open air, like rust.
He has a serious flea allergy, you can't see the fleas because they don't live on the dog. They just jump on to feed, and he's allergic to the bites.
He'll be scratching and chewing and licking a lot. He needs treatment sooner rather than later.
You must get him something like Frontline from the vet. You can also get an electric flea trap for the house. Hoover well every day and wash his bedding once a week.

Answer 6

Basic Training of the Puppy - Read here https://tr.im/J27jk

The new puppy is certainly one of the most adorable and cuddly creatures that has ever been created. It is the most natural thing in the world to shower it with love and affection. However, at the same time it is important to realize that if you want to have a well trained adult dog, you need to begin the training process right away. The dog, like its related ancestor, the wolf, is a pack animal. One of the features of a pack is that it has a single dominant leader. Your new puppy is going to want that leader to be you, but if you do not assume that role from the very beginning, the puppy’s instincts will push him to become the leader.

The most important thing to remember about training the puppy during its first six months of life is that it must see you as the leader of the family pack. The essential thing is gaining the trust and the respect of the puppy from the beginning. You will not do this by allowing the puppy to do whatever it wants to do whenever it wants to do it. On the other hand, a certain amount of patience is required. Most people err in their early training by going to extremes one way or the other. Although you need to begin the basic training process at once, you can not expect your dog to do too much at first. Basic obedience training is fine and should include simple commands like sit, stay, and come. Remember that trying to teach the dog advanced obedience techniques when it is a puppy is much like trying to teach a five year old child algebra.

It is also important to restrain from cruel or abusive treatment of the puppy. You can not beat obedience into your dog, and it certainly is not going to engender feeling of respect and trust. House breaking is an area where this usually becomes a problem because of the anger that is triggered when the puppy fails and creates a mess inside the home. Although this issue must be addressed without anger, it most be addressed. If you allow the puppy to eliminate inside the house, it will continue to do so as an adult dog. The same thing is true of other destructive or dangerous behavior such as chewing and biting. Do not expect the puppy to grow out of it. You are going to need to train the puppy out of it, but you should do so firmly but with a sense of play and fun using positive reinforcement and lots of love and praise for good behavior.

Answer 7

Many times a dog's saliva (drool) will make white hair look pink, especially if the dog has sensitive skin. My dog is mostly white and she has pretty much permanent "pink" stains around her mouth. She gets dry irritated skin often, especially after bathing.

Try a hydro-cortisone spray made just for dogs. I have one that also has aloe in it. Do not use around the mouth, though, only on other areas of the body (read instructions on bottle)

Answer 8

The pinkness is likely to be inflamed skin, especially as you said your dog is scratching.

The cause of this really should be investigated - the most common cause is fleas, but it could be anything from parasites to a bacterial or yeast infection or it could be allergies.

Call in to your vet, rule out the obvious first - treat for fleas with a prescription flea treatment. If this doesn't stop the scratching then your vet will need to diagnose it further.

Answer 9

Take him to a vet.

Sounds like allergies... my dogs have the same issue. Give him 1 25mg pill of benadryl wrapped in cheese or his fav treat once a day... If that doesn't help enough try 2x a day. If that doesn't improve his itching take him to the vet, they'll ask you if you've tried benadryl and if you tell them you have and it didn't work they'll probably prescribe prednisone 1x or 2x a day... Also your dogs shampoo my be irritating his sensitive skin.. switch to a unscented puppy formula. You can also invest in a bell collar (those big round collars that project out that keep them from gnawing at or biting at themselves) they're pretty cheap. I just adopted a dog who has severe allergies... he can't run in tall grass because of his sensitivies, he takes 2 prednisone a day, and we put a bell collar on him at night when his allergies are bad... When they get severe and he's scratched at himself we'll also put neosporin on his belly and the irritated areas- it acts to heal the scratches and moisturize the irritated areas- but only do this with the bell collar on because they will try and lick the neosporin and it isn't safe for them to eat- avoid putting neosporing on the dogs face!

Also, when you do go to the vet bring your dogs food with you, he may have developed an allergy to one of the ingredients.

Answer 10

Could be a form of eczema, allergies, scabies, or mange. (Not trying to diss yiu with the last two...they pick it up in the strangest ways) The good news is they are all easily treated with cream or medicated shampoo.
I suggest you take him to the vet as soon as you can. Ask your vet to do a skin scrape...this is where they take a scrape sample of the top layer of skin. This doesn't hurt your dog in the slightest. Your vet will then be able to look at the sample under the microscope and quickly identify if it is any of the above things.
Good luck....I hope it's nothing serious.