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Nose Peeling


Anda
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This is how Ouzo's nose looked yesterday at the vet's office.

 

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Monday afternoon I noticed a small scratch on top of the nose, it was showing a bit of red, but I blamed it on a potential missed fetch move or who knows what. Put a bit of antibiotic ointment and forgot about it.

 

Until Tuesday morning, when his nose was looking a lot worse. In addition to the scratch in the middle, the black skin on the sides of his nose was starting to curve up, almost peeling. I put more oinment, some Bag Balm, and hoped this would fix it.

 

Well, Wednsday morning it was even worse. So of course I went online and started to research "dog's nose peeling". OMG, the causes were varied, from "Collie Nose" (a bacterial infection with horrible images attached), to autoimune diseases, Lupus, skin cancer or maybe simply dryness or sunburn.

 

You can imagine my horror when I came home earlier from work to load Ouzo in the car and head for the vet and found that two big pieces of his black skin were actually sticking up, ready to peel at the slightest touch.

 

Long story short (oh, what a long 20 min drive that was!), the vet thinks it's nothing but sunburn, since the skin under looks pink and healthy, he doesn't have any other scabs on his ears, mouth or paw pads (signs of autoimune disease). She told me put sunscreen on his nose from now on, dab some vaseline or Bag Balm for the next few days, and, if nothing changes, then it was sunburn.

 

This is how it looked after the vet gently peeled off the dry skin sticking out

 

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IF it gets worse, they might have to do a biopsy which you can imagine is horrible on the nose and see if there's somehting else.

 

GOOD NEWS - his nose hasn't peeled since yesterday, looks good, and given the fact that I am peeling on my back too :rolleyes:)) due to our wonderful Friday outing at the dog park, I think we can both blame it on the sun.

 

When he was much younger his nose had a lot more pink above and I used to put sunscreen on it. I know he's got a white face so I was aware he's sensitive to sun. As am I, as a matter of fact :D

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Poor Ouzo! My dog walker's dog - who looks like a Kelpie/Husky cross has nasal solar dermatitis, which I guess is a fancy way of saying chronic sunburn. He has it all through the summer each year. It doesn't seem to hurt him, but I would be worrying about cancer too. Yeesh! Here's a winter pic of him. Sorry I don't have any that aren't photoshopped.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Not that many people cared about this particular thread, but in case someone happens to search the database for nose peeling or sunburn, I wanted to follow up on my original post and confirm it was just a bad sunburn. His nose improved every consequent day, and he's now wearing Water Babies sunscreen with SPF 100 every time I take him out in full sun.

 

Four days later it looked almost as good as new.

 

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The black pigment started to fill in again later as well. You can see it in this image, another week later.

 

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Believe me, I don't wish this kind of scare to anyone. Glad it ended up with a lesson learned and a more hydrated nose :rolleyes:

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A good reminder for us all that the sun doesn't necessarily have to feel hot to burn.

 

I carry a doggie diaper bag in my car at all times with necessities: water & bowl, poo bags, extra leash/collar, etc. I think I'll add some sunscreen to the pile.

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With Juno's white nose, I'm glad I saw this post this time around. It's interesting that you are using the Water Babies sunscreen. When she was little, my older daughter's skin was very sensitive and reactive to most sunscreens, and Water Babies was the one kind we could trust not to cause rashes. They've probably reformulated it any number of times (Lillian is many years past little-girl-hood), but I hope they've kept it baby mild.

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I also missed this post the first time around. I'm glad his nose is better now but keep a close watch on it in future. My rough collie Noah has had "nose issues" for the last 2-3 years and each time it comes back it gets worse. The first time all that happened was he lost a bit of pigment above his nose for a few months and then the colour came back. Now when he gets it he looses hair all up the bridge of the nose, around the eyes, tips of his ears and gets all scabby. This most recent time he also lost pigment on some of the nose leather and got sores there too. And, in conjunction with all that going on with his face he he's been getting terrible hot spots on the back of his thighs and under his belly. He's turning 9 in October and he's only been getting all this happening in the last 2-3 years. He's been seen by the vet who did a skin scraping on his face which came back negative for mange, yeast or bacterial infections. I suspect environmental allergies are contributing to Noah's problems, he only gets this in the warmer months and in the winter he's fine no matter how much time he spends out in the sun then. Here are some pictures showing the progression of what he looked like the first time he experienced any problems, and more recent ones I took a few weeks ago. His face is now looking better than when I took these most recent pictures but the hot spots have started again. :rolleyes:

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My rough collie Noah has had "nose issues" for the last 2-3 years and each time it comes back it gets worse. The first time all that happened was he lost a bit of pigment above his nose for a few months and then the colour came back. Now when he gets it he looses hair all up the bridge of the nose, around the eyes, tips of his ears and gets all scabby.

 

I thought I'd heard of a condition called Collie Nose, and sonofagun, there is such a thing. Here's a link: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2111&aid=412

 

Might not be the same thing as is going on with your guy, but wanted to put the info out there for you.

 

Ruth

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OMG, poor Noah, do those incidents pass and he heals up? Please tell me yes! Sweet baby, it's so painful to look at their sores, hope it passes soon!

They do pass and he heals all up except the hair is a bit thinner in some spots so he has a bit of a scarred look. Luckily it seems to look worse than it feels because he really doesn't act much bothered by it other than when it's bad around the eyes, at which time he rubs it along the fence and makes it bleed and scab worse.

 

I thought I'd heard of a condition called Collie Nose, and sonofagun, there is such a thing. Here's a link: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2111&aid=412

 

Might not be the same thing as is going on with your guy, but wanted to put the info out there for you.

 

Ruth

Yes there is more than one condition referred to as collie nose, one is solar nasal dermatitis which usually affects dogs that have white markings and pink skin above the nose. The others are the auto-immune disorders. The only way to be sure would be to have it biopsied and go from there. Treatment in that case could include prednisone which I'm hesitant to put him on for an extended period. Last time the vet saw him she suggested I manage it by keeping him out of the sun, using sunscreen on him and she also gave me an anti-inflammatory/antibacterial eye ointment to put on around the eyes to help soothe that area. I also use a zinc oxide cream on the rest of his face and ear tips and since I suspect seasonal allergies are contributing I'm also currently giving him Benadryl. It's not as bad now as in these pictures. The sores on his nose are now healed and the pink on the nose leather is turning black again. The bridge of the nose is still bald and pink but not as raw looking as a couple of weeks ago.

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Yikes! Poor Noah - hope he gets better!

 

And I'm very glad to see that Ouzo has improved. That lovely boy did NOT need those horrible scabs on his nose!

 

I lived many years in southern California with a Border collie who, fortunately, never showed the same signs of sensitivity to sun that I do. Put me outdoors in California (or in Colorado, for that matter) and I burn until I blister in no time. It had never occurred to me that the same might be true of a Border collie.

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That must be a relief to see the handsome boy's nose back to its handsome self. Scaary that it went so quickly into the leather.

 

But it is a good reminder to protect Border Collie noses from sunburn if they are lacking any pigment on the nose. I have no problem with my girl, but each of the boys I've had have needed sun protection in summer. I usually use white zinc cream, since then I can tell when I need to re-apply it - and the dogs haven't been nose-lickers. My vet is happy with me using that on the dogs, but warned not to use it on cats, who needless to say will lick it off and ingest it.

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  • 1 month later...

When I was lliving in Mexico with my first BC, Cheyenne, her nose used to burn and peel. Sunscreen she simply licked off. Finally I started coloring in the pink part on top of her nose with black magic marker. Everyone thought I was nuts, but her nose stopped burning. I always worried that the magic marker might be bad for her, but I had limited resources where I was and I figured it was better than letting her nose be burned all the time....

D'Elle

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  • 1 month later...

I am new to the board, been lurking for a while. However I was given a 8 month old female border collie puppy by a really nice family who did not have time for her. Ever since I adopted my first BC mix I was hooked on BC's (my husband thinks I am crazy) anyway. I am a little concerned about the dryness of her nose and of the pads on her feet. They seem to be cracking a little and I have noticed that her nose is never moist. Always warm and dry. I noticed this thread and thought maybe someone had some ideas on what it may be. We live in Texas and it is very dry this time of year. If anyone has any idea or suggestions please respond. Thank you.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi lmaautrta. For dry paw pads I swear by Bag Balm or Vet Balm - you can find it at Wal-Mart for about $8 for a big box of lanolin based ointment. It made a big difference in avoiding having Ouzo's paw pad ripped open on rough surfaces. No idea of the dry nose - we live in Colorado, pretty dry, but my dog has never had a dry nose problem, despite the horrific images I posted above six month ago.

 

BTW - by religiously applying SPF 100 on his nose we avoided any kind of drama after this incident.

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  • 8 years later...

This is almost 10 years later, but I thought I’d post In case anyone was trying to look this up. My border collie has pretty much the exact thing. Hoping it’s a sunburn, I’ve been putting Sulfodene on it and it looks like it’s healing but it does crack and peel off. 

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