Black dots on Spitz nipples. Black spots on a dog's skin

People can be very picky about their appearance, spending a lot of time in front of the mirror. Despite this, almost all dog breeders forget that cosmetic problems are not only the prerogative of humans. Similar troubles happen to our smaller brothers. In particular, comedones in dogs are quite typical. Despite their apparent “frivolity,” they can cause a lot of trouble for your pets.

Unlike humans and even cats, whose comedones are actually clogged sebaceous glands, In dogs, acne can “technically” be considered a manifestation of folliculitis and. Inflammation of the hair follicle - folliculitis, the process transitions into a purulent form with the formation of pustules - furunculosis. Thus, in dogs this pathology is quite dangerous in itself. If you do not provide timely medical care to a sick dog, the consequences can be very serious.

Comendons “grow” in abundance on the chin and lips. Since these areas are covered with short and coarse hair, clinical signs quickly become apparent. Subsequently, the skin in these areas becomes inflamed, swells, and possibly (later) the formation of scar adhesions. In most cases develops quite strong skin itching, sometimes the dog scratches his face until it bleeds because of this.

It is believed that comedones are quite common in all dog breeds. But in practice, it turns out that more than 70% of cases are diagnosed in short-haired animals. In addition, it is in them that the disease is often most severe, often (and without much delay) progressing to.

Read also: Arrhythmia - disturbance of the heartbeat rhythm in dogs

The primary symptoms of dog acne are quite mild, and therefore do not cause much concern for animal owners at first. But if you do nothing, it will quickly become obvious that something is wrong with your pet:

• The affected areas of the skin become very red.
• Papules, acne, pustules and nodules appear.
• A little later, boils appear.
• The skin may bleed due to multiple lesions.
• Over time, severe itching develops. The affected areas swell noticeably and become hot to the touch.

Further development of the disease

If you don't take your dog to the vet, things will get much worse:

• Small ulcers and boils burst, the chin area is sometimes completely covered with drying pus and ichor.

• As the animal’s immunity weakens, increasingly larger papules and boils appear.

• Bursted boils and papules do not heal; large ulcers develop in their place.

• Due to pain and intoxication, the animal partially or completely loses its appetite.

Predisposing factors

Unfortunately, there are many dozens (if not hundreds) of causes of comedones in dogs. That is why the primary task of the treating veterinarian is to identify a specific factor in a particular case:

• Injuries.
• . By the way, this is a very common reason.
• Autoimmune diseases.
• Eosinophilic folliculitis and furunculosis.
• Malassezia dermatitis.
• Histiocytosis.
• Metabolic disorders. Let us note that comedones often appear in those dogs whose owners do not particularly monitor the quality of their pets’ diet.
• Neoplasia.
• reactions.
• Secondary staphylococcal skin lesions. They usually develop against the background of various injuries, accompanied by a violation of the integrity of the skin.

Previously, it was believed that acne in dogs is almost always the result of hormonal imbalances in the pet’s body. But now experts are inclined to believe that the whole point is in the pathological follicular keratinization characteristic of most shorthaired people od. But even among them there are varieties that are at particularly high risk.

Skin diseases in dogs are becoming more common today. The reason lies in many aspects: improper and inadequate nutrition, deterioration of the ecological atmosphere of the air, a sedentary lifestyle, crossing with infected individuals. Often skin diseases in animals manifest themselves as hereditary predispositions to skin diseases.

Types of skin diseases in dogs

If there is the slightest change in the dog’s hair, contact a veterinary clinic to carry out the necessary tests and make an accurate diagnosis of the disease. Here are some common skin diseases in dogs. Only a doctor can make an accurate diagnosis.

Symptoms of the disease

If skin diseases appear in dogs , symptoms are divided into 3 groups.

1. Excruciating itching, in which the dog scratches the body until there are abrasions and scratches.
2. The appearance of new growths on the skin: plaques of different sizes and colors, warts, blisters. On the damaged body of the dog, peeling and redness of the skin develops, which turns into baldness.
3. If the damaged areas of the skin get infected or get microbes, the dog’s skin becomes inflamed, swollen and festers.

Skin diseases in dogs are dangerous for animals and humans. It is important to provide timely medical care to your pet.

Treatment of skin diseases

Selected simple diseases of dogs and skin diseases can be cured at home.

The home flower, aloe, has healing properties. Aloe juice applied to the dog's damaged skin will relieve itching, discomfort and burning sensation. It’s easy to squeeze aloe juice yourself or buy a ready-made product at the pharmacy.

Herbal decoctions have similar effects: chamomile, calendula, echinacea. The drugs reduce pain in the dog, relieve inflammation and eliminate microbial suppuration on the skin.

These drugs are used exclusively in the initial stages of the disease. If complex skin diseases are observed in dogs, treatment is carried out in a veterinary clinic. Before prescribing medications, the doctor is obliged to conduct a full diagnosis of the suspected disease, take appropriate skin tests and blood tests, and remove scrapings from the dog’s skin. After determining the exact diagnosis of the disease, effective treatment is prescribed.

An accurate diagnosis of the disease cannot be made solely by visual examination. It will be necessary to conduct laboratory tests on the dog's hair.

If a doctor, after looking at a dog, immediately prescribes medications, the dog cannot be treated under the guidance of such a doctor. Remember, improper treatment can lead to the death of the animal.

Preventive measures

Dog diseases are often associated with improper maintenance and care. It is necessary to fulfill simple conditions so that the pet remains healthy and alert.

Don't let your four-legged friend suffer, remain a responsible owner.

One of the most common postpartum complications is mastitis. Mastitis is an inflammation of the mammary glands that develops both in lactating bitches and in dogs with false pregnancy. But why does this pathology develop, and how does it manifest itself? How to cure a dog?

Causes of mastitis

1. Lactostasis is stagnation of milk. Due to the fact that the secretion of the mammary glands is not removed, it begins to compress the alveolar tissue, causing its irritation. Milk is an ideal environment for the proliferation of bacteria and fungi, so when it stagnates, microorganisms actively increase in number, leading to the development of inflammation. Lactostasis occurs due to the fact that puppies do not eat all the milk produced (little or complete absence of puppies, false pregnancy).
2. Wounds, cracks in the skin of the mammary glands - all this is an additional gateway for infection. Bacteria and fungi penetrate the alveolar tissue and the circulatory system through damage to the skin. That is why it is important to ensure that puppies do not scratch the mammary glands of the nursing bitch during feeding (after all, babies “trample” the gland with their paws to stimulate the production of milk).
3. Other inflammatory processes in the body, intoxication. For example, if the bitch had endometritis (inflammation of the uterus), dead puppies remained in the uterus for a long time, problems with internal organs. Bacteria quickly spread throughout the body through the bloodstream, but in order to form milk, a huge amount of blood must pass through the mammary gland. This is how infection of the alveolar tissue occurs.
4. Blockage of the milk duct. It is very similar to lactostasis, only with it milk is either not removed by the puppies at all, or in insufficient quantities, or is formed too quickly. If the nipple canal is blocked, it cannot be removed from the mammary gland at all.
5. Overheating or hypothermia of the animal. It is very important that the lactating bitch has comfortable living conditions.
6. Exposure to the mammary gland of aggressive chemicals.
7. Stress. It doesn't benefit anyone. Due to the pet's nervous overstrain, the owner may notice how the dog's mammary glands are swollen: mastitis develops.
8. Genetic predisposition. Even at the gene level, there may be a tendency to develop an inflammatory process. Therefore, if you know the facts that your beauty has had inflammation of the mammary glands in her family, it is better to sterilize your pet so that she does not suffer from mastitis.
9. Poor living conditions, dirt on the bed. The dog itself may be dirty. Always keep your pet's mammary glands and nipples clean. If necessary, rinse with warm water.
10. Endocrine diseases. Problems with hormones always provoke deterioration in health. Metabolism is disrupted, organs function worse, hair begins to fade and fall out.

Types of mastitis

Mastitis is classified according to its course: acute and chronic. In acute cases, inflammation develops very quickly, but it is easier to cure a dog with this form. Chronic mastitis is sluggish, the symptoms are more blurred, the mammary gland “degenerates,” and therapy is protracted and not always effective.

Inflammation of the mammary glands is also classified according to the nature of the exudate: pus, fibrin or mucus (catarrh). That is, most often dogs have purulent or catarrhal mastitis (often mixed with blood).

However, there are also serous (external changes in milk are extremely difficult to notice), fibrinous (in the secretion of the glands you can find dense white strands - fibrin threads), phlegmonous (the same purulent, only the pus is in the subcutaneous tissue, as if spilling), abscess (in the inflamed lobes, abscesses appear - ulcers surrounded by connective tissue, like a capsule) and gangrenous (the tissues of the glands “die off”, turn black).

Symptoms of mastitis in dogs

• One of the obvious symptoms that a pet has mastitis is a swollen mammary gland in the dog. And if you touch the milk carton, it is hot, dense, and extremely painful. With lactostasis, the skin temperature on the swollen bag is low, but the overall body temperature rises significantly above normal.
• Increased body temperature. Mastitis is an inflammation, and it is always accompanied by fever. In addition, there is severe thirst, lethargy and extremely poor appetite.
• Soreness and redness. Again, there are clear signs of an inflammatory process in the animal’s body. An inflamed milk bag will be noticeably red, swollen, painful and hard.
• The secretion of the mammary gland changes. Milk does not always noticeably change its consistency (with serous mastitis), however, with gentle pressure, milk of a yellowish, yellow-green color with pieces of pus or admixtures of blood will be released from the nipple. Purulent mastitis is dangerous because microorganisms quickly spread through the bloodstream throughout the body, and pus can provoke sepsis. With catarrhal mastitis, the milk acquires a watery consistency, in which you can see flakes of a grayish-yellow color (sometimes brown).

Abscesses and phlegmon of milk bags are extremely dangerous, because they are purulent foci that can lead to sepsis and gangrene of the gland. The animal dies due to intoxication.

Treatment of a dog with mastitis

If you notice that your dog's mammary gland is swollen, do not try to start treatment yourself. Both lactostasis and mastitis should only be dealt with by a veterinarian. You should not try to alleviate the animal’s condition at home without qualified veterinary care. And in any case, puppies are transferred to artificial feeding, otherwise they will begin to have problems with digestion (bacteria in milk are dangerous for a fragile puppy’s body).

It will be almost impossible to cure your pet without antibiotics, but therapy must be comprehensive. We need drugs that improve the outflow of exudate. And antibiotics are ideally selected based on titration results. It is necessary to conduct a bacteriological study of milk from the affected lobe, isolate the pathogen, and determine its sensitivity to antibiotics of various groups.

In the initial stages, good results can be achieved with physiotherapy (two to five sessions are required). But you shouldn't try to make them at home yourself. Massages and heating during purulent inflammation are prohibited, as they lead to pus entering the blood and surrounding tissues.

Also, at the initial stage, it is possible to achieve good results thanks to the novocaine blockade. It would be a good idea to learn how to properly express milk from the affected lobe in order to remove microorganisms and the ideal environment for their reproduction - milk - from the inflamed bag.

In addition, pumping will reduce pressure on damaged alveolar tissue and reduce pain. However, it is worth remembering that after expressing the milk comes again, so you will have to carry out this procedure repeatedly or immediately after emptying the gland, bandage it tightly.

If physiotherapy does not help, the veterinarian will prescribe antibiotic therapy and vitamin therapy. In more complex cases, surgical intervention is also necessary. The pustules are opened, washed and covered with powdered antibiotics.

Prevention of mastitis

• What needs to be done to prevent the dog’s mammary gland from becoming swollen and developing lactostasis and mastitis? First of all, after whelping, take your pet to the veterinarian. He must check that the animal does not have postpartum complications. Indeed, due to hidden inflammatory processes, mastitis can develop.
• Be sure to clean the bed, the nurse’s resting place. Wash her tummy, milk bags and nipples. Make sure there are no wounds or cracks on them. If you find it, process it immediately and observe.
• Trim puppies' nails. These little ones have claws like needles - very sharp. Therefore, babies can scratch a nursing bitch, thereby opening the gates of infection.
• If the bitch has had stillborn puppies, then you need to see a veterinarian. Antibiotic therapy will probably be prescribed to avoid inflammatory processes in the body, and detoxification.
• If the dog had false pregnancy or a large influx of milk that the puppies cannot cope with (either there are too few of them, or none at all, or they eat little), then you need to think about suppressing lactation. If it is easier with false puppies (special medications are given, the glands are tightly ligated), then if you have puppies, such methods are not suitable. Review your diet, remove all dairy products (this includes soups, liquid cereals, dairy products, wet food and meat), reduce the amount of liquid consumed.
• Don't forget about your hygiene. Your dirty hands or clothes can lead to inflammation, because after feeding the puppies, the nipple canal will remain open for another half hour to an hour. And bacteria from your hands will easily penetrate the gland.
• Don’t forget about washing the floors, just watch what you use. Remember that household chemicals will also harm your dog's health.

Foreign pigmentation on the body of the animal causes concern for the owners. There are several reasons for this phenomenon, from completely harmless to dangerous to the pet’s health.

If you cannot determine the cause on your own, it is better to contact a specialist.

Common causes of blackheads

These include conditions and diseases:

• Lentigo.
• Dermatophytosis.
• Weeping dermatitis.
• Comedones.
• Demodecosis.
• Seborrhea.
• Hormonal disorders.

A black dot on the skin that does not cause other symptoms is a common comedon. This is a time clogged with dirt and sebum. It occurs in dogs with little hair on exposed areas of the body due to extreme heat and lack of hygiene. Only in miniature schnauzers primary comedones are the norm and do not require intervention.

For other breeds, skin care is provided, scrubs are done and nutrition is monitored. Often comedones are caused by hormonal disorders. Additionally, this condition is accompanied by increased greasiness, unpleasant odor, spots and baldness. A sharp jump in hormones is typical for older dogs.

A cosmetic defect includes lentigo - characteristic dark spots on the skin and paws. Unfortunately, there is no cure for it. Normally, it does not interfere with the life and health of the pet in any way.

Black spots on the back are a sign of infection

Bacterial pathogens and fungi provoke dermatitis and dermatophytosis.
The infection enters the body through micro-wounds on the body. Symptomatization occurs against the background of reduced immunity. These pathogens constantly live on the skin, but are dangerous only for weakened pets.

These infections cause:

• itching inflammation;
• crusts;
• wet marks;
• baldness.

The pet itself feels discomfort and, when scratching, spreads lesions throughout the body.

Black spots under the skin: demodicosis

This disease is caused by a tick. At the first stage, the skin is covered with a red rash, but over time it becomes covered with a dark crust, which is mistaken for blackheads. As the lesion progresses, hair falls out around the lesion. Shepherd dogs, Rottweilers, Great Danes, Boxers, Collies, Shelties, and French bulldogs are prone to the disease. Risk groups include puppies under 1 year of age and pets over 10 years of age.

More about diseases caused by ticks and their treatment in the article.

How to treat black spots on the body

Before prescribing treatment, the veterinarian does a bacterial culture. This helps to identify the cause and prescribe an effective and safe drug:

Infections are fought with antibiotics, and external manifestations are stopped
antibacterial ointments and healing medications. During the treatment period, maintain sanitary conditions and prevent dirt from getting into the wounds.

If blackheads appear due to allergies, then a set of actions to relieve them is developed.

Cosmetic defects are not eliminated. To avoid infectious diseases, you need to carry out preventive measures on time and properly care for your pet. It is important to monitor immunity and nutrition, give vitamins and ensure an active lifestyle.