I'm worried about Cricket

She has had skin issues since I got her. I know I've posted that before. Anyways I told my husband I want to take her to a vet because I really think its an allergy issue of some sort. Her skin dries out and she lost some hair on her neck. She gets rashes often.

Tonight my husband was playing with her and he noticed something that wasn't there yesterday. She has two nipples that are swollen and it looks like a dark bruisy rash beside them. It's a lot darker red than it looks in this photo. She doesnt seem to mind me applying a little pressure on it but its really concerning me.

A little background. She's not spayed and she just finished her first heat though her vulva is still a little swollen so she may be in heat still. If she is in heat its definitely a really long one. She hasn't been near any intact dogs at all. She did get tied with Bamm by accident though but he has been neutered for years and that was about two weeks ago.

Here's a pic

Could it be a false preg and mastitis??

Omg I hope its not mastitis. I know my husband is going to be frustrated about me wanting to take her to a vet but I don't want to risk it getting worse by not taking her

Bear, my parents dog, used to get those from laying / playing in a certain type of grass. It may not be the same thing, but it looks similar. It was an allergy. Fingers crossed for an easy fix!!!

Gavroche actually has VERY similar spots right now (AGAIN! Grrrrr) but more of them. Last time vet said chiggers, but I'm questioning that now. But he doesn't have the rings around the nipples that Cricket has and that's kind of concerning.

She doesn't look like she has any mamary development to speak of, so I would put mastitis pretty low on the list.

Kaia had exactly the same bruising, minus red spots, after her first season. It freaked me out. Apparently it's normal. Hers took about a month to go away on its own.

Is it possible the area was irritated from the swelling/mammary development that happens in their first season and she maybe over groomed?

Charlie used to get spots on her belly like that. Not sure but I think it was close to when my sister got her and she had been spayed not long before then. It could have also been the grass/allergy... never really found out what it was and it went away.

The swollen nipples may very well just be agitation from any licking and scratching she might have been doing down there.

It looks a lot like a rash that some of my fosters got from the grass.

Wilson has bruising similar to that, but it's on his neck. He randomly decides to scratch his neck raw sometimes, and the bruises pop up when it starts to heal. I'll have to take a picture of it for you. Drives me crazy.

Kady id definitely like to see a pic of that. I posted another thread a few days ago or so about Cricket's neck. She is missing some fur where its thinned out and her neck was really red probably from scratching. The redness went away after a couple days with cortisone cream but the hair is still really thinned out there for now.

First, remember that the cortisone cream is going to cause swelling and has the same side effects (though milder) as cortisone. Switch from that to topical benadryl and see what happens. Or even something with tea tree oil.

I don't think it's mastitis, but if it is, the best treatment is to run warm water over her belly for 5 - 10 minutes several times a day and boost her immune system. Learned this when it happened to Tallulah with her first heat. Vet charged me $125 to tell me that, plus another $60 for antibiotics that we could have done without.

I would get her into the vet, honestly. It could be many things. It doesn't look like mastitis to me, either and I have seen a lot of females with mastitis and it looks nothing like it does.. if it was she would have inflamed nipples and usually when dogs have mastitis they usually get it from having a lot of milk in their teats or if they are nursing. Maybe a yeast infection?

Okay here you go..



it's a cell picture, so not the best, but you can see the bruising (mostly near the bottom). It was almost completely healed after his last episode, but he randomly decided to scratch it raw again last night.. I think his is caused by boredom. I do have a spray that is tea tree oil based that I use on it that seems to help.. but he HATES it. Acts like I'm spraying acid on him or something!

That actually looks a lot like cricket's neck only she has darker fur surrounding so it doesn't look quite as red. What's the tea tree oil based spray you're using? I just need her to stop scratching herself so it can start healing. She is a mess as far as her skin is concerned so I still definitely want to get her checked out.

It's called Vet's Best Hot Spot Spray.. smells really good. It does seem to help, and it wasn't too expensive (I got it at a local pet store), so it was worth it. I give him 50mg. of Benadryl too when he has episodes like this.

Dis she wear a diaper during her heat? It looks like her whole "diaper area" is irritated.

Eve got bruises like that from chewing/scratching her nipples when she was in heat. Worried me, too.

Honestly the only thing i can think of with Cricket and her skin issues is the abundance of grass where you live, and perhaps an allergy to that.

I second the Vet's Best Tea Tree Oil. Maya gets allergies around this time of year, and she had a few raw spots where she had really scratched. I had been giving her Benadryl, but that seemed to really knock her out, so I picked up some of the Vet's Best spray. It definitely has helped her not to scratch so much. She wasn't a fan of getting sprayed at first, but now she comes right over to me to get her "spritz".

She hardly wore her diaper when she was in heat. She only wore it when she was out of her crate in the apartment and if I'm at work she is crated and at night she is crated and when I'm home she spent most of her time outside with me so she only wore the diaper about two hours out of the day and only during the bleeding part of her heat.

I'm wondering honestly if its more of an allergy situation or from her licking herself a lot. She does tend to lick her belly a lot recently.

Also Kady I got that vet's best hot spot stuff and already that's making a difference on her neck area where she's red and been losing fur. The redness is gone now on her neck. I sprayed some of it on her belly where the other redness is and she hasn't licked that spot since I sprayed it so I might continue doing that to keep her from licking it so it will heal. It looks like its already starting to heal.

Oh good! Glad it's helping