[beks]

Ok, so i have another question ( yes i know i'm full of them. but this is the first dog i have ever owned so i am still learning!)

I have a Golden Lab/mix when we got him at 10/11 months old his nose was completly black as night...and now it is turning pink!

He did have a scratch one the top of his nose, that healed up and left the top part of his nose pink, what i thought was just a scare from the scratch.. but now the front of his nose is slowly turning pink, the sides and bottom are still black black blakc, but the top/center of the front of his nose is like a pale black/pink colour, why might this be? i have never known dogs noses to change colour, does anyone know why?

What type of dishes does you dog eat/drink from. Some types of dishes ahve been known to change the color of a dogs nose. also, some dogs just change. being a mixed breed it it hard to tell.

Really a dish can change their nose colour? Sorry to jump in but that's interesting!

I did a bit of looking around and found a few things about this and possible reasons:

"The various causes of loss of pigmentation of the nasal planum (the usually black portion of the nose):

1) Dudley nose -- loss of pigment seen in a number of breeds for unknown reasons in which the nose is black when dogs are young but fades to brown or sometimes even white as the dog ages.

2) A transient form of the above condition may exist or it may be something else, but some dogs do lose some pigment and then recover the normal coloring of their nose over time.

3) Labradors, Golden retrievers, Bernese Mountain dogs and Siberian huskies may have seasonal variation in the color of the nasal planum, usually lighter in the winter and darker in the summer. The cause of this is not known, either. Some vets refer to this as "snow nose".

4) Vitiligo can cause loss of pigment of the nose and it may also be part of a syndrome of immune mediated disease in which hypothyroidism also occurs, so perhaps this is the link to loss of color of the nose and hypothyroidism but if it is, the hypothyroidism is thought to occur after another disorder causes the color change. Dogs with vitiligo normally have development of patches of white hair or white hairs scattered in the hair coat. I don't think that loss of pigment in the nasal planum only is likely with this condition.

5) Contact dermatitis can cause loss of pigment in the nose -- some dogs are reported to be sensitive to the plastic that is found in some feeding bowls, for instance. Continual irritation of the nasal planum from a cause like this might lead to loss of pigment. Usually the lips are also are inflamed or may have pigment loss if they are dark, too.

6) We see dogs with discoid lupus and with phemphigus that have loss of pigment of the nasal planum, usually patchy but sometimes most of the planum is involved. There are also usually skin sores around the edges of the nasal planum, on the bridge of the nose, around the eyelids or places like that. "

Mike Richards, DVM
10/6/2001

Hope this helps!!

[beks]

Wow thats a bunch for all the information, really interesting, i never knew any of that..well obvously or i wouldnt be asking lol....

but thanks alot!

my dog eats out of A ceramic (i guess) dish, but as said up there that plastic dishes can effect the pigment i guess its not his dish!

Maybe it is *winter nose* i guess we wil have to wait until the summer to find out...

thanks again for all the info!