What's this?! My dog has little crusty black spots all over her inside hindlegs..?

[Cancara]

This is bizarre- I noticed my dog seemed to be itching a fair bit at her shoulder while she was out today, so I decided to have a good dig through the fur and check her out.

She has bad hips (older GSD) and hates her back legs being fiddled with, but I managed to get underneath- she’s got lots of these black freckles higher up on the inside of her back legs. I’m ashamed to admit I’d seen them once before and dismissed them as just as her skin colouring, but today I noticed one of them was in her fur, so I tried scratching some- and they started to come off! :eek:

I did a bit more scratching and they continued to do so, and dog was not distressed by this- eventually she got a little sick and started licking at my hand- my polite girl’s way of saying get off. The patches of skin the black bits came off were a bit pink underneath, but didn’t look too sore and my dog did not rush to lick at them.

What are these things?!!

My local vet is now closed till Monday for the weekend, my dog is not going to keel over and die so I don’t want to raise an emergency, but I’d like to know what’s going on! I’ve searched the net and early indications seem to suggest an allergy but are non-specific.

The closest I’ve found to it is this:
http://www.televets.com/archive/3430/skin-rash-with-black-bumps-scabs.html
but the skin doesn’t look sore, just freckly. You see the patch toward top right that’s darker? More like that- she’s pale underneath so I’d be able to see if it was red- it’s not.

She is regularly frontlined along with my other dog, who is definitely not itchy, and despite a lot of combing through the hair- I couldn’t see any black specs that moved so I don’t think it’s fleas!

Anyone any suggestions? Could you maybe have a look inside your dogs back legs for me too and tell me if you have any?!

[Philibuster]

It might be flea dirt. That’s the dried blood/waste from fleas.

[irkenequine]

Does it look like dirty, mottled appaloosa skin? Or like it would be a film of dirt but it doesn’t scratch off clean like dirt would? Many older dogs get that weird mottling complexion to their inside thighs as they get older I’ve noticed.

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSWiprVxrylTKvqq6NxRn169OMrjQcv6IjzMW3-HU2ocbBN_VxL5M0ONH-m

Something like this?

[Cancara]

Could be- it’s a little hard to tell with her being so much hairier!

It looks like clusters of black freckles. I’ve scraped several off on a comb again tonight- can’t have been that comfortable but she was ok for a while- they are not alive. They are dry and hard. Skin in the area definitely pale- normal- not red, not inflamed. There are so many she’d have to be infested with fleas I think for it to be that. Very localised though, and although I have, again, combed through the hair, still not seen anything moving at all, and I’ve seen fleas on a dog in the past. The black bits are also definitely on the skin and not through the hair- only the odd one on the hair near the base which has clearly just come off the skin.

Thanks for the help though guys, it’s seriously bugging me not knowing! Vets Monday, but will try and put some pics up tomorrow if she cooperates.

[lauriep]

Seed ticks? It is the time of year. Squeeze one between your fingers and see if you get any blood. They SEEM to be hard until you squeeze them. Definitely make the dog itch. They are almost invisible when they get on the dog and about the size of a pinhead when fully engorged. Really a pain.

[Cancara]

I have put some shots on Photobucket. Both hindlegs look like this all the way up and you can see the skin is quite ‘quiet’ not angry and inflamed, except the bit in shot 1 that I’d been scratching at:

http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh27/Xenomorphic_2008/Ninas%20leg/

Thanks for the continued suggestions will be looking these up when back from stables!

[JanM]

It might just be dirt that accumulated in one place, and that’s why the skin underneath isn’t inflammed. Folds in skin do accumulate dirt.

[jenm]

[QUOTE=makif388;5886865]
ty for share best one[/QUOTE]

reported

[Mara]

Wet some of the specks. If they turn red and look like blood, it’s flea dirt.
Fleas don’t utilize the part of the hemoglobin that causes blood to be red. They excrete it.

[JoZ]

My guess would be flea dirt. I’ve asked my vet about several different sorts of speckles and it’s ALWAYS flea dirt.

[MizzouMom]

Our itchy old dog also developed freckly-looking bare skin inside of her thighs which the vet diagnosed as flea allergy - the Frontline we’ve used for years has stopped working, apparently, which was an unpleasant surprise when we thought our pets were all protected. We’ve been fighting fleas for weeks.

He had us start using Adams spray, which my husband has enthusiastically embraced, and now tonight the dog is acting ill - I think he’s half poisoned her with too-regular applications.

He’s out there giving her a bath right now.

[Cancara]

Well- FINALLY- Vet tonight (I just came back to work after an accident and getting time off for a non-emergency just wasn’t happening) and the mystery is solved!!!

My dog has a clean bill of health, and thank goodness, the fleas have not overcome the frontline!

She has… (drumroll please)…

COMEDONES- or Blackheads- but caused by a hormonal issue which has come about as she ages- they are in the same location as this:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Ask-Veterinarian-700/2010/10/black-dots-burrowed-dog.htm

She is otherwise fit and well and it’s just something we have to deal with- as the vet informed me, her older girlie has them and they can be ‘fun’ (scratching them all off, as I’ve discovered). I do feel better now knowing that they are not harmful.

So maybe this will help inform someone out there… but as the vet told me, if in doubt, get it checked out. There’s not really a treatment for this, as a cosmetic issue, so if this is what it is, you’re just looking at the consultation fee. For me, here in the UK, 20 pounds is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

Thank you all again for helping me to try and work it out as I waited. It gave me things to explore and think about and stopped me going nuts- it also meant I played nit nurse to both dogs every evening scrabbling through their fur trying to find a single solitary flea!! :lol:

[kimsdogs2011]

My Cairn Terrier has her back end covered in this crusty black skin which I loosen up with Vitamin E cream. She doesn’t seem bothered by it but it looks uncomfortable and gross to me so I try to soften it up and then use a small toothed comb and comb out the old skin. Reapply cream. It looks better for a while and crusts over again. I know it’s not mange, or fleas but agree that some kinds of dogs have this problem when it gets colder out and the heat is on more in the house. The vet thought she had cancer 3 years ago but she is almost 11 with no apparent problems other than the dry black skin. She is quite active and still plays fetch with her little ball 24/7… Today, I’m going to rub a collodial oatmeal bath over the area and see if that helps any better. She’s had this skin problem for awhile but since she doesn’t seem bothered I’m doing what I can so it doesn’t bother me. I did see the same problem a few months ago when I took a ShihtZu from a family who left the poor thing in a crate with another dog all day and night. She was only a year old and after a week of reapplying the Vit E cream and combing out the old skin, it cleared up. Looked exactly the same but that time it was cleared up. Found her a new home and the skin has been clear ever since.

[QUOTE=Cancara;5882054]
This is bizarre- I noticed my dog seemed to be itching a fair bit at her shoulder while she was out today, so I decided to have a good dig through the fur and check her out.

She has bad hips (older GSD) and hates her back legs being fiddled with, but I managed to get underneath- she’s got lots of these black freckles higher up on the inside of her back legs. I’m ashamed to admit I’d seen them once before and dismissed them as just as her skin colouring, but today I noticed one of them was in her fur, so I tried scratching some- and they started to come off! :eek:

I did a bit more scratching and they continued to do so, and dog was not distressed by this- eventually she got a little sick and started licking at my hand- my polite girl’s way of saying get off. The patches of skin the black bits came off were a bit pink underneath, but didn’t look too sore and my dog did not rush to lick at them.

What are these things?!!

My local vet is now closed till Monday for the weekend, my dog is not going to keel over and die so I don’t want to raise an emergency, but I’d like to know what’s going on! I’ve searched the net and early indications seem to suggest an allergy but are non-specific.

The closest I’ve found to it is this:
http://www.televets.com/archive/3430/skin-rash-with-black-bumps-scabs.html
but the skin doesn’t look sore, just freckly. You see the patch toward top right that’s darker? More like that- she’s pale underneath so I’d be able to see if it was red- it’s not.

She is regularly frontlined along with my other dog, who is definitely not itchy, and despite a lot of combing through the hair- I couldn’t see any black specs that moved so I don’t think it’s fleas!

Anyone any suggestions? Could you maybe have a look inside your dogs back legs for me too and tell me if you have any?![/QUOTE]

[Canaqua]

Our elderly ACD has that too, doesn’t seem to bother her any, it just looks unsightly when she’s lying on her back begging for a tummy rub ;).