Big Black Button Nose is Turning Brown

[Pat & "Tucker"]

I noticedin the past month or so that Tuckers nose (so cute) is turning brownish right in the middle. It use to be so so black and cute. Is this normal? He is cream GD.

[Holly~Fourpawsdoodles]

You are 100% correct - I had it flipped around in my head - I will chalk this up to sleep deprevation LOL.

SNOW NOSE
Technically called "hypopigmentation" (or snow nose, winter nose) it results from loss of sunlight, and causes the nose to fade to brown in winter; normal colour returns as summer approaches. Snow nose occurs mainly in light-coated breeds; the colour change can become permanent in older dogs. It is not associated with disease.

Another reason for this condition is a deficiency of B vitamins, PABA in particular.



Get rid of plastic food bowls and replace them with metal or ceramic bowls since some pets may be allergic to plastic. Plastic dish dermatitis can occur if the dog eats or drinks out of plastic or rubber bowls. It is triggered by a reaction to an antioxidant found in the dishes.

However, only going off of my personal experiences it has been the metal bowls that caused my dogs noses to change color.

Holly

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I just think stainless & glass are so much easier to clean than plastic; plastic discolors and gets scummy no matter how hard you scrub it. It's easy to believe that it could harbor more bacteria than steel or glass would.

[F, Calla & Luca]

The world is full of bacteria as we are. Doodles cavort outside, they chew on grass and sticks, "vacuum" up crumbs etc. So water bowls are hardly the source of most of the bacteria they ingest, especially if they are cleaned regularly and the water is changed often. I mostly use ceramic or stainless dishes. I have a plastic water bowl in the kitchen because Calla tends to drip all over and the bowl is designed to help prevent this which it does somewhat effectively. I do tend to think we over sanitize our environment, however. I sanitize things only when necessary, for example after washing a turkey in the sink. Then I use bleach which is a very good germicide.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm not really a germaphobe...I never use antibacterial cleaners or hand sanitizers and don't really worry about germs in the environment. (Up until Jack was diagnosed, I was pretty casual about keeping up with household cleaning. Sssssh.) The water bowl thing is a big deal for Jack because one of his allergens is a kind of water mold. (And I just don't like the feel of plastic.) It wouldn't really be possible to live with the Slovokian Slobhound here and be a person who is concerned about sanitizing the environment!
But the above comment was more in response to Holly about the reasons why it makes sense that the plastic bowls rather than the metal bowls would be to blame for the nose changes. And we do see a lot of doodle with staph infection issues around their faces.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Ann, Have you had black puppies born with pink noses?

[Pat & "Tucker"]

Here are some before (just starting to turn brown) and after (brown). Actually these pictures his nose looks reddish but it is brown (no redness)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yep, Tucker's nose is like Jack's:

And the middle gets lighter when he's outside in winter. I'd say snow nose, for sure!
When we first noticed it, my daughter accused me of kissing the black off his nose!

[Pat & "Tucker"]

I agree- I think we both have cases of "snow nose!!!!!!!! Thank you for originally mentioning that. We'll have to compare again when the warm weather and lots of outside activities begin again....... such a long wait.

[Dori]

Teddy's (Goldendoodle) big black nose has lightened to brown recently too! My sister's GD as well. We are guessing from other posts it may be a seasonal thing - although we live in California where it frankly doesn't get that cold! He has always used a ceramic bowl.Or - maybe it just lightens with age? He is 2 now...

[Leslie and Halas]

Halas' nose was black when he was a puppy, and seemed to stay black through his first winter (he was born Sept. 1). But last winter, which would have been his 2nd winter, it did start fading to more of a rose color. It darkened a little during the summer, but has never gotten back to the solid black it was when he was a puppy. Now that's it's colder again, I've noticed it starting to fade a little bit more to the rose color. I don't mind it, but I didn't even notice it until someone brought up the topic here last year. Then I looked at Halas' nose and thought, "Hey, it is a different color." So in his case, it does seem to be the "snow nose."

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Leslie, do you have photos of Halas from when he was first born?

[Leslie and Halas]

I know I have pics of when he was first born, and every week after that, but I can't find all of them right now. The earliest one I can find is 4 weeks old. You can see his nose is black.

Here he is on his 6 month birthday, March 1, 2008, at the tail end of his first winter. I was thinking that his nose stayed black all through his first winter, but now that I look back at some of these pics, it was obviously already fading to a rose color. It's still about this same color now.