Skin color change
– August 17, 2017 Toby –
From the day I was born until I was four years old in human years, my entire body’s skin was pink. I was eating kibbles made of beef and it was delicious. For some reason, Joanna changed my food to lamb and rice, yummy, I love lamb, especially when Johnnie grills it. We thought he was barbecuing, but he was corrected by a southern bell who informed him that grilling ain’t barbecue. What do I know other then I love cooked meat especially lamb. What you call it does not matter.
Anyway, after I started eating lamb, my skin got blotchy with specks and patches of black. Johnnie thought something was wrong and began exploring my diet, my skin, and whatever else humans do when they say they are exploring what is going on. Well, nothing came up so we went to see the good doctor at the vets office and he basically said, I don’t have allergens, or other skin problems that would cause such a thing and that changing skin color is not unusual in a dog my age. What age? Four or twenty-eight or whatever the new math says my age is. Anyway, it is not unusual for a four-year-old dog’s skin to change from pink to black. Wow. What do you know.
So over the year, the skin on my entire body turned black, except my pink belly that I love to lick. What I have noticed is that with the black skin on a cool morning, I heat up quickly lying in the sun. The beam lights up the floor and I just lay there and bask it up. Johnnie says that my black skin absorbs sun better than pink skin (sounds sciencey and I don’t really understand. But I do enjoy heating up quickly under a sunbeam). Sometimes I can lay there all morning just soaking up the rays.
So if your pooch’s skin is turning color, monitor the change. Is there a change in behavior or mood? If there is no skin rash or other disorder that is evident by excessive licking and newly created hot spots, it is likely natural. For us dogs with hair instead of fur, we can use all the warmth we can get when it is cold outside. Or inside at Joanna’s, she rarely ever turns the heat on. Remember us poos and doodles need warmth when it is cold as we are like you in that there is no guard hair to keep our body heat in. Again it sounds like science, which I don’t really understand. I’m just conveying a message here.
