You should seek the advice of your veterinarian if your pet is ill as only he or she can correctly advise on the diagnosis and recommend the treatment that is most appropriate for your pet.

Sometimes an animals skin will change from white/pink to black or vice versa...but why ?

The normal colour of skin and hair depends upon the amount of coloured pigments that are present in the tissue.  Black colour is due to the deposition of a pigment called melanin and light coloured skin or brown hair contains less melanin than black areas.If there is no melanin pigment the animal is an albino - and hair is white and skin appears to be very pale whit/pink (the pink colour being due to underlying blood), and the iris of the eye is pink.

In most domesticated animals patches of normal skin can be black or white, as can hair colour. However, in some individuals the "normal" white/pink colour of skin can change to black, or black areas can change to white - and this is usually due to a disease process.

Increased black pigmentation is called "hypermelanosis" and reduced black colour is called "hypomelanosis". 

Increased black pigmentation occurs for various reasons including  :

• Following inflammation of the skin due to various causes including :
  • bacterial infections
  • allergies
  • parasites (eg demodex)
  • friction/rubbing
• Hormonal disorders including :
  • Cushings disease
  • thyroid disease (hypothyroidism)
  • sex hormone disorders
• Other factors
  • exposure to sunlight - in animals with sparse haircoat
  • acanthosis nigrans - seen in dachshunds (an inherited problem))

Decreased black pigmentation is due to various reasons including  :

• Skin healing following :
  • trauma
  • burns
  • infections
  • exposure to radiation
  • following inflammation of the skin
• Exposure to environmental factors :
  • chlorine (in swimming pools)
  • sunlight - especially on the bridge of the nose
  • contact allergies
• Other factors :
  • drug reactions
  • sex hormone disorders
  • nutritional deficiencies (eg copper, zinc, vitamins)
  • cancer

A change in skin colour in itself is not important, however, as can be seen from the list above, some of the changes in skin colour can be due to an underlying disease - which may be serious. So, veterinary advice should be sought if you notice a change in skin colour in your animal.

Updated October 2013