Skin darkening

Hi all darcy's belly skin has gotten darker over the last couple of days, & she still licking her toes. Have you guys got any ideas. Thx in advance.

What are you actually doing about her licking at the moment? I'd say the paw licking and the skin darkening are probably linked.

Skin darkening can and usually is a sign of an underlying condition - wether it be, mites, fleas, yeast, bacterial infection or allergy - a vet is ur best bet with diagnosing the issue.


As a sidenote: paw licking can be a reaction to walking in gritted/salted surfaces in the cold winter months. The grit/salt is an irritant.

Initially I was advised it was probably just an irritant so to keep clean & apply sudocrem, but I've noticed the skin darkening yesterday.

I'd go back to the vet. Have you tried any exclusion diets?

Vet can do simple hair pluck and scrape to rule out mites etc..you'd likely get results same day.
As skin is darkening I'd be inclined to think it's not an allergy.

is her skin irritated were its darkening?

Thx guys I will take her the vet ASAP. No caryll I haven't have you any advice re- exclusion.

rebeccaleanne wrote:is her skin irritated were its darkening?

No it's just darkened on her belly.

Must admit it's a bit strange. Is she scatching or licking her belly?

The exclusion diet can be long drawn out, I just wondered if you'd tried cutting things like grains out of her diet?

No caryll it doesn't seem to be bothering her at all. She has arden grange puppy twice a day with sardines in occasionally and mince/beef occasionally mixed in.

Not sure if it's related at all but Charlie's skin changed colour as he got older and I just though at first he was filthy and needed a bath but nope, just has greyer skin round his back legs

We have a vets appointment at 3pm so fingers crossed we get it sorted. :-)

Good luck at the vets, I hope you can get to the bottom of it.

Good luck, keep us posted to what the vet says.

Arden Grange, although not one of the worst foods around, still contains Maize. If she's intolerant of food, cereals (wheat, maize etc) would be one of the first things I'd try to cut out.

One of the Hypoallergenic brands might be a help.

Good luck at the vets!

Caryll wrote:Arden Grange, although not one of the worst foods around, still contains Maize. If she's intolerant of food, cereals (wheat, maize etc) would be one of the first things I'd try to cut out.

One of the Hypoallergenic brands might be a help.

Good luck at the vets!

Any advice which is the best hypoallergenic on caryll?

Back from the vets and the verdict is an allergy to something. She said to wash her feet after walks. She gave her steroids & antihistamine's and advice to put her on a hypoallergenic diet so I've bought the Arden grange sensitive white fish & patato which has not maize etc. so fingers crossed many thx everyone.

Ooh & they did skin/hair scrape & she's clear for demodex, which is good news
:-)