English Bulldog and black skin... (vet, wound, diet, allergies)

[bentlebee]

Does anybody knows what black skin (no smell, odor, wound, etc) can be on the side of a 28 month old male Bulldog?

I noticed it today when we walked our dogs and I thought that the dog had a dirty spot so I took a towel to clean him since I was planning on giving him a bath this upcoming weekend.
When I looked really well I noticed that the hair on that side is much thinner. He is Fawn colored and looks a little bit of a Tiger, has white in his face and his belly, so it is hard to see since black coloring is on more spots but both sides are getting larger black thin hair spots.

Like 4 weeks ago I started to give him some can food which I never had done and he seems to like it. Normally he gets dry food with vitamins to reduce shredding, which really helps a lot. He also get's some Turkey and chicken (only the white boneless parts).

I was thinking if it would come from laying more on his sides...since these are the only places he is getting it.

I really appreciate to hear back from people who have come across this issue...

[MAK802]

Yes, it's his diet. What are you feeding him? We have an English Bulldog as well and he's never had issues because he is on a high quality diet. A friend of ours has a fawn female, and she started developing what you described. They were feeding her Iams, which is crap, and she wouldn't believe me that it can be caused by a poor diet. After it got progressively worse, she switched to a higher quality food and it disappeared within a month. Bullies are extremely sensitive to the grains/fillers in their food. They need a high quality diet to thrive. Good luck!

[dogpaw]

Could be caused by many things. Allergies, it is that time of year. Rita, who is a 5 year old bulldog had the same thing when she was younger. It occurred probably 3 different times. Never bothered her, no issues as far as skin problems and it just went away on it's own. I haven't seen any sign of it in a couple of years.

See what your vet says.

[Viralmd]

This could be a number of things: the result of irritation (like scratching) or a fungal infection (like an organism called black piedra).

Ask the vet to do a skin scraping and KOH (potassium hydroxide) prep to look for fungi.

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by Viralmd

Ask the vet to do a skin scraping and KOH (potassium hydroxide) prep to look for fungi.

Would yeast type infections show up via that method? (Another cause of black skin)

[Viralmd]

Yes, yeast ARE fungi. Fungi come in two flavors: yeasts and molds.

[ZSP]

Originally Posted by Viralmd

This could be a number of things: the result of irritation (like scratching) or a fungal infection (like an organism called black piedra).

Ask the vet to do a skin scraping and KOH (potassium hydroxide) prep to look for fungi.

No advice to the OP, but Viralmd; thanks so much for pointing that out. I am always learning something new from your posts.

[bentlebee]

I'm feeding him high quality food and Iams...he isn't itching and has no open wounds what so ever...just a spot that has less hair but maybe it is from the "cold" weather we had recently here in Florida compaired to what we usually have and than all of a sudden it got very warm..

I know he always shred more hair during the times when the weather starts to change ....thanks for all your suggestions and luckily I'm was more worried than my English Bulldog, he seems not to have noticed anything...woof!

[MAK802]

Iams is a really terrible food. Check out the reviews on www.dogfoodanalysis.com. It rates only 2 stars because of all the fillers, byproducts and grains. You should try a grainless food. English Bulldogs do very well on grainless since most of their allergies are to grains. Try brands like Wellness Core, Orijen, Taste of the Wild, Acana or EVO.

[bentlebee]

I was told that pedigree is like feeding your dogs McDonalds...

Thanks for all of your good advises.