# Possible to scratch pigment off nose?



## Lucy Dog (Aug 10, 2008)

So Lucy scratched her nose about a week ago and i treated it like any other scratch she's ever had. Soap and water and neosporin. 

The scratch scabbed in about a day and everything looked normal. A couple days ago the scab fell off and now the scratch feels like its healed, but it's lost its pigment where the scratch was. 

Is this something that could be permanent? Anyone have experience with this? It's looked like this the last couple days without any signs of improvement. If you touch it, it also feels like it's completely healed.


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## Kayos and Havoc (Oct 17, 2002)

Oh Lucy has a Nacho nose!! All of my dogs have Nacho noses! LOL!! 

We call it Nacho nose because the orange cat named Nacho insures each dog understands they are not to invade her space. She does this by giving them the benefit of her claws on top of the nose leaving a nice scratch that loses pigment when it heals. 

Kayos has had heres for about 5 years now, still no pigment. Havoc's is about 18 months old, no pigment.....

Here is the perp.


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## Lucy Dog (Aug 10, 2008)

So it's like this forever and it's never going to get better? Lucys got nacho nose for life?


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## jfisher (Dec 29, 2005)

I guess I've been lucky...I've seen that type of wound a few times over the years on my dogs. Once from a GSD with SA issues who rubbed it raw in the boarding kennel, once from an overly enthusiastic pup in her crate, etc. In my experience, they've all healed and pigment returned fully. One of them had a tiny scar, barely noticeable, but no effect on pigmentation. I hope she gets her color back!

-Jackie


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## Lucy Dog (Aug 10, 2008)

Do you remember how long it took to heal? It's been about a week now without any improvements the last couple days.


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## jfisher (Dec 29, 2005)

The female with the SA who injured hers most severely in the boarding kennel was the worst one, and if I remember correctly, it took about 1-2 weeks to heal, but a few more weeks after that for the pigment to return.

-Jackie


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## Lucy Dog (Aug 10, 2008)

hmmm sounds good... hopefully it heals up then. Guess it just takes time. I'll keep putting neosporin on it like i've been doing. If not, i've always got a black permanent marker.


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## jfisher (Dec 29, 2005)

> Quote: If not, i've always got a black permanent marker.










That is exactly what I almost typed at the end of my last post, but I decided against it because this being the internet sometimes its hard to convey a joke, but I'm glad you can see the humor in it!









-Jackie


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## Daisy1986 (Jul 9, 2008)

Shadow has scratched his and the color returned. I do not think it was bad enough to have a scab though. 

Maybe it depends on how deep it was.


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## Lucy Dog (Aug 10, 2008)

It wasnt deep at all. It was just a regular scratch. It bled for about 5 minutes, cleaned it up with soap and water, and put some meds on it. It scabbed in about a day. The scab fell off in another day somehow and it hasnt changed since then. Its been the same way as it looks in the picture for a while now. I know not the best picture (taken w/ iphone), but thats where we are today.


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## kelso (Jan 22, 2007)

Allie scratched her nose similar to that. Of course probably being over-worried I took her to the vet, but he acted like it was a non issue and just told me to put some neosporin if anything, on it. He put a steri-strip type thing on it, but that came off quickly.

It took awhile and then one day I realized that her nose looked just like normal, pigement and all. (after much worry)

Looking back at pics it looks like it took 2-3 months to be completely normal. Hate to say it but it happened again (I know, bad, I saw it both times) She had this thing with sticking her nose underneath our wooden fence (not anymore!!) there was a small gap in the fence. So I worried again, but it went back to normal. Now I just try to be extra careful, maybe we just got lucky the first couple times, but hopefully it will go back to normal for your dog to. 

Someone may be able to offer something in the homeopathic forum on healing creams that may speed up the process? We did not do anything with hers, just let it heal.

pics from the first time

March 2008 (right when it happened)










April 2008 -healing










June 2008, all healed (not sure if you can tell by this pic, but literally you cannot see any type of scar whatsoever)


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## Lucy Dog (Aug 10, 2008)

Thanks for the pics steph. That scratch looks exactly like Lucy's, just a little bigger. Guess it just takes time to heal on that spot then. Thanks!


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