Reader Question
Oakley is a spayed female Catahoula white leopard, approximately 4 years old. She eats canned dog food with a little high-protein dry food mixed in, and has been eating this for over two years. Two years ago we got another Catahoula male puppy. As he got older he tried to breed her and he would rough her sides up. This is where I noticed this starting. The little scratch marks healed up, leaving a scab. During the last six months I noticed she had little knots all over her side from the front shoulder back to the last rib, down to her belly button. They are small, matchstick size and smaller, most closer to pencil lead size. If you press the area, a black to brown substance comes out with the consistency of toothpaste, no liquid, nothing yellow like infection. The area closer to her backbone has sort of healed up, but it left the black spots you can see in her hair. The once blackhead-looking spots are now sores that look like tough skin. The areas on her lower sides and stomach still seem to be active. On her stomach you can see larger black areas under the skin, like it is trapped under the outer layer of skin. When you press these areas a lot of that will come out, yet it never seems to go away. She has had a two-week round of antibiotics from our local vet with a steroid shot. We went back 4 weeks later as the areas looked the same. He gave her another steroid shot and did a skin scraping, and said it didn't look bacterial to him. Since then she has
started scratching the area on her belly and made a huge sore. The only thing we have changed around the time this started is a bed with trampoline-type material. We wash it and keep it clean, and in the last two days I have covered it with a blanket to see if she is reacting to the material. Thank you.
Answer from Our Team
Tiny bumps that release a dark, toothpaste-like material when pressed are usually plugged hair follicles (comedones, the dog version of blackheads) or small follicular cysts. The material is keratin and oil. When follicles keep plugging and breaking, the area can become inflamed and infected, which may explain the tough sores and the new itchy patch on her belly.
In dogs, several things can cause lots of blackheads: some breeds' skin types, hormone conditions such as low thyroid or Cushing's disease, a type of mange (demodex) that lives in the follicles, and pressure or friction. Because antibiotics and steroid shots haven't helped, ask your vet about the next steps: deep skin scrapings or hair plucks for demodex (steroids can make demodex worse), blood tests for thyroid and adrenal disease, and a skin biopsy if those don't explain it. A referral to a veterinary dermatologist is a good option.
Please stop pressing the spots. Squeezing can break follicles open under the skin and make the inflammation worse. Covering the bed is a reasonable test, but a contact reaction is a less likely cause of this pattern. Keep her from licking the belly sore with a T-shirt or cone until she's seen.
See pimples and bumps on dogs, demodectic mange and thyroid disease in dogs.
This is general information, not a diagnosis. Please follow your own vet's advice.
