Your dog’s genetic history determines most of his body features, including his hair and nose color, which can change for different reasons such as allergies, weather, injury and age. Generally, the color of your dog’s nose is a huge pointer to their health.
The pink spots on your dog’s nose might be mere discoloration and should not be a cause for worry. However, if this discoloration is accompanied by certain symptoms like bleeding, soreness, cracks, or change in skin texture, then you might be right to worry and would need to consult your veterinary doctor to check your dog out.
In this article, we would be discussing the most common causes of these pink spots and how to treat them. Read on!
Dog Suddenly Has Pink Spot On Nose
Causes
As we mentioned earlier in this article, there are 4 common causes of pink spot son your dog’s nose. They are weather, age, allergies and injury. Now, let’s take a deeper look into each of these causes.
Weather
Although your dog can have pink spots on his nose at any time of the year and in any weather, it is most common during colder weathers. This is as a result of the breaking down of Tyrosine enzymes in your dog’s nose due to the extremely cold weather.
Pink spots caused by cold weather is called snow nose or winter nose and this is the most common of the 4 causes of pink spots on dog’s nose.
According to popular belief, snow nose rarely happens to darker dog breeds like Shepherds, Retrievers, Huskies and Bernese Mountain Dogs. Rather, it mostly happens to lighter dog breeds who produce less melanin as they grow.
If the pink spots on your dogs nose is not accompanied by any symptoms, it is likely caused by snow nose.
Age
Age can be a causative factor on two fronts:
- Before your dog matures and fully develops all his body features, he can have pink spots or even a completely pink nose between the ages of 8 to 12 weeks. After the 12th week, your dog’s nose takes on a permanent color that will remain for the rest of his life. a puppy’s nose becomes the color it will be for the rest of its life.
- As your dog grows older, he begins to produce lesser and lesser amounts of melanin which would in turn begin to make him lose his color, giving rise to discolorations.
So if your dog has pink spots before he is 12 weeks old, he is likely still in the formative process and if the pink spots begin to show up as he ages, anytime from 6years old and above, your dog is likely losing melanin.
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Injury
Most active dogs have pink spots on their noses as a result of an injury. This is because these dogs are highly energetic, they could get into a fight with some other dogs or get injured while playing around the yard.
If your dog has a pink spot on his nose from the injury, you do not need to worry since the pink spot is likely to fade off and blend back into its original color as the injury heals, except it becomes a scar.
Allergies
Dogs might be allergic to certain things and they may develop pink spots on their noses as a reaction to these allergies. This condition is medically referred to as Contact Dermatitis.
When your dog’s nose comes in contact with something he is allergic to like dirty food or water bowl, or the chemical found in new plastic food bowls known as p-benzyl hydroquinone chemical (inhibits the production of melanin or dark pigment in your dog), pink spots might begin to show on his nose as a reaction to this allergy.
A dog with plastic allergy may experience symptoms like frequent licking of nose and rubbing of face.
- Other less common causes of pink spots on dogs’ nose would include Canine Vitiligo, Nasal Dermatosis, Pemphigus, Discoid lupus and Dog mites
Treatments For Pink Spot On Dog’s Nose
Let’s look at recommended treatments for each of these causes of pink spots on dog’s nose:
Snow Nose
The snow nose condition does not have a treatment. This is because it is only a cosmetic condition and does not affect your dog’s health in any way. As a matter of fact, it often goes away on its own as the weather improves and your dog’s nose returns to normal as you approach summer and spring.
Even though snow nose is only a cosmetic condition and will go away on its own, it will not hurt to have your dog checked by your vet doctor to ascertain the actual cause of the pink spots.
Age
There is really no treatment for pink spots caused by age as this is a force of nature and genes. However, you must bear in mind that even with the timing, age might not be the cause of the pink spots on your dog’s nose. This is why it is advised that you immediately consult your vet doctor whenever you notice these pink spots on your dog’s nose.
Injury
There might be a few things you can do to aid the healing of the pink spot like applying one ointment or the other. For this reason, it is important to consult your vet doctor to seek his opinion on whether to aid the process or allow the spot fade away naturally, which might take up to 4weeks, depending on the severity of the wound.
Allergies
Treating pink spots caused by allergies is quite easy. If your dog is reacting to the chemical in the new plastic bowl you just bought, simply look out for other food bowls that do not contain this p-benzyl chemical to stop its effects on your dog.
Always pay attention to the materials used to make the bowls before getting them for your dog and be sure that your dog does not have any plastic allergy. If he does, it would be safer to but stainless aluminum food and water bowls for your dog.
If your dog is reacting to dirty food or water bowl, simply wash them well before using them to serve your dog any food or change them to metal bowls, altogether.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Should I Be Concerned If My Dog Has A Pink Bump On His Nose?
Pink bumps are not as dismissible as pink spots. Pink bumps on your dog’s nose may be caused by nasal polyps or tumors. A dog with a nasal tumor may begin to show the following symptoms: Swollen nose, frequent bleeding in the nose, swollen cheek and lips, excessive nasal mucus discharge.
If you notice a pink bump on your dog’s face and he is showing any of these symptoms just mentioned, we advise that you consult your veterinary doctor immediately.
You can’t be sure of its severity so it is better to play safe by seeking medical help for your dog. The treatments for nasal polyps may range from therapies to tumor-removal surgery.
Final Note
As we have established in this article, pink spots on your dog’s nose can be triggered by different factors, a few of which we discussed extensively.
Some of these causes can be treated, while others cannot. Generally, you can use dog-friendly sunscreen and nose balm on your dog before he goes out in the sun since your dog’s nose is more prone to sunburn when it has pink spots on it.
Also ensure to consult your doctor on the best sunscreen or nose balm to use before applying any of it on your dog.
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