Dog Community

Stained Fur- Food Reaction?

Posted : 3/5/2009 1:18:33 PM

Dreamer has recently developed these ugly reddish stains on her belly (where the hair is thinnest) and under her 'armpits'. These cant be enviromental stains as she very rarely goes outside and besides her feet are white as snow. Also, she is getting stains around her mouth. I switched almost a month ago to Kirkland Puppy, Chicken and Vegetables, which is apparently better than the Pro Plan I was feeding before. I know the beet pulp can cause staining, but Proplan also has beet pulp and the red stains have never been a problem. What can be causing this and how can I get rid of them? Thanks!

Fuzzy Dave

Posted : 3/5/2009 4:44:10 PM

anyone?

thedoc617

Posted : 3/10/2009 5:31:52 PM

Does she lick herself a lot? A lot of times the red stains are caused by saliva. (my first Shih Tzu used to get horrible raw marks and stains on her armpits.) If it is that, benadryl should help. Also I'm not sure where you're from, but do you have hard water at your house? When Lucky gets tap water, he starts to get staining too (something about the mineral content maybe) try switching her to bottled water. (or at least filtered) and see if it helps.

Sunshinegirl

Posted : 5/5/2009 12:14:58 AM

We had a problem with eye staining and some muzzle staining and used Angels Eyes, it worked great!! I wonder if it would work for everything you mentioned. I also agree with water being a culprit......we moved from our house to an apartment 2 months ago and the dogs had always had filtered water from the door of the fridge.... when we moved I started giving tap. Abbie immediately started getting the stains and I went to spring water, what a difference!!

DracoDogTraining

Posted : 5/16/2009 8:02:03 PM

we had this happen with our bichon with the tear stains best bet is to get them off of red beat pulp and onto something with less grains, grains generally cause allergies and if it is an allergy instead of giving them benadryl all the time or spending extra money on angel eyes just get a better food, its cheaper in the long run. I have no real problem with kirklyn as thats what my dogs are on but they dont have allergies to it and for non-white dogs it is a fine food. Also giving them distilled water to drink only will help the staining

huskymom

Posted : 6/20/2009 7:38:55 AM

My dogs eat raw food, no beet pulp, but they get stained feet in the winter from chewing the ice between their toes after a good run. The first time I noticed it, I thought they were bleeding, it got so dark. But no, just a rusty coloured stain.

I agree, watch for licking and if you notice it, maybe think about food allergies or even something that could be getting on her fur in those areas that she feels the need to clean off.