So I discovered some swelling on Tundra's nose yesterday. It is all bumpy and looks like little pimples but no puss or anything comes out of them. This morning they are open soars. They have a raw look to them. They don't seem to be bothering her like it itches or anything and her breathing is normal. Any thoughts? Unless it gets MAJORLY worse like covering her entire face or her breathing is effected I am going to wait til Monday to take her to the vet. I gave her some Benedryl last night but it didn't seem to help. Thoughts?

Ouch! Not sure what it could be but you may want to try hot compresses, they really helped when Tessa's nose looked like this:

I'm not completely positive,  but that sure looks like poison oak. Not sure if dogs can be allergic to it or not but i've had it enough times,  thats what it looks like. If its poison oak I would just make sure you don't use heat on it. I would just make sure it stays dry.

A couple points - if it's a histamine reaction (which is my bet) caused by either an allergy or bug bites, hot is bad. Cold is what you want to do.

To answer the question about poison ivy/oak/sumac, not every human is "allergic" to them, meaning one can have a terrible reaction and the next person through have no reaction at all. Not sure if the same is true for dogs. But if that is what it is, just because you don't have it and she does, that doesn't rule it out.

Hope that helps - Jean

I am not going to do any hot or cold compressions right now. Just not comfortable with that. And out of 3 humans and 4 other dogs I would think one of us would react if it were poison ivy/oak etc. It would seem odd that it is just one dog out of 5 and none of us humans have reaction. I guess it could be though. The deck is now blocked off from any dogs going under so that is good. I will keep you all posted on the progress and diagnosis.

My terrier mix got something exactly like that once when I was farm sitting.  It went on the side of her muzzle as well.  It eventually scabbed over (not long after it first appeared) and healed on its own.

Looks like whay my brother-in-laws dog had recently only she had bumps all over her body.  Vet said it was a staph infection and put her on antibiotics. 

Finally got a chance to go look this up.  I suspect this is like I said a secondary skin infection.  Anyway the commom term for it is canine pyoderma or folliculitis or cellulitis.  Here is a link with description:

www.medi-vet.com/Canine-Pyoderma.html

You need to see a vet, but one of the treatments will probably be to bathe the area with a drying medicated shampoo in addition to antibiotics.  This is not unusual in shorthaired dogs and usually occurs after a scratch, insect bite or something along those lines.  Good luck and let us know what you find out.

Wow. I would definitely go to the vet for some antibiotics.

It still reminds me of what Tessa had, except she had just one of those...once it started oozing the swelling went down. They wanted to put her on antibiotics at the time but couldn't because she was also treated for severe diarrhea so the vet said compresses and keep an eye on it for a week. At which point it had completely cleared up.

This looks pretty extensive though.

I agree with Phyllis - peroxide is essentially useless. One note though to everyone - don't use Betadine straight, it burns like crazy. Mix it at least one to one with water.

Jean