Sunburn?

[Swissy Mom]

The white area right around Cash's nose and mouth is pink lately. Quite pink really. It doesn't go all the way up his blaze, it's just the area immediately around his nose/mouth - underneath, too. At first I thought sunburn, but since it is underneath and isn't all over I'm not so sure. It's been this way for a while now. It doesn't look irritated, no rash, it isn't warm. It probably isn't anything at all. You can see it in these pics:

[ToBScholarly]

Has he been eating anything different? Or sticking his nose/face somewhere new?

[Swissy Mom]

Nope, same old, same old around here. Well, I guess it may have started with the Wellness switch...hmm....

[Lora]

My thoughts are allergies

[gotbigdogs]

Its allergies.... Argus gets like that, one of the reasons I neutered him when he finished his championship...

[Cole's Mom]

I agree with allergies...Cole gets pink a lot especially when he has been out rubbing his face in the grass.

[Swissy Mom]

Thanks for your input everyone. Now I'm wondering what is causing him to react....ugh!

[Dan Simon]

Caveat on the following: I am NOT a vet....this is just based on personal experience with our beagle and her allergies.

If the allergies on Cash continue (I seem to recall an incident with anaphylaxis a short while ago), you may want to look into switching him to a raw diet. Alex had _horrible_ seasonal allergies where she would scratch at her face and eyes until they bled (and her paws). The only drugs strong enough to have an effect on the allergies made her miserable with the side effects. Several vets recommended that we try feeding her raw, so we (finally) did.

She _loved_ the food (go figure). We were giving her chicken backs/necks (mainly necks, given her size), yogurt, and a vitamin supplement. The new diet knocked the allergies out of her almost completely. She still had trouble in the late summer/early fall, but just a normal dose of benadryl would take care of them for her. I'd say that the diet added a good 4 years onto her life...and made her vastly more comfortable.

May not help with Cash...or it may take care of a lot of the issues. Swissies are generally big enough dogs that they take easily to the chicken backs and necks. Alex needed to learn to chew her food (she threw up a lot at first...which in her mind was great, since she got to eat again).

I think it was in the Barf Diet book (forget the actual title/author) where they were saying that meaty chicken bones (aka backs/necks) are one of the more nutritionally complete foods you can give a dog.

Added benefit: they crap out a LOT less...

[Swissy Mom]

Thanks Dan. We've been seriously considering raw and this is probably the thing that will make me finally take the plunge. It doesn't seem to bother him. He isn't scratching or anything...except when he has the Gentle Leader on, which I imagine would be quite irritating on already irritated skin. I hate to drug him if I don't absolutely have to. We'll probably make the raw switch and see how it goes. Then if he's still pink we'll see what our options are, but I have felt for a while that raw would be the best diet anyway. (Plus, the amount of poop he generates on kibble is unreal...he poops 2-3 piles after almost every meal - 4x daily!)

[mezmerelda]

It is possible that the redness is due to the GL... I'm guessing it's more likely the food switch, but it's still something to think about. When I first tried it with Indy, she was rubbing her face all over the place to get it off.

[Swissy Mom]

He didn't rub with the Gentle Leader until after the pink showed up so I really think the pink is causing him not to like the GL rather than the other way around.