does anyone know why my american cocker, black and white particolour girl has got a redish stain to her throat and chest area?  i've been told that it could be something to do with her licking her hair and that changing the colour.  please help if you can.

The hair will change colour if there is excessive licking due to saliva staining. Do you know why she is licking?

I don't see that discolouration to the throat can be anything to do with licking.

At least, as far as I am aware, a dog cannot reach its own throat with the tongue.

> At least, as far as I am aware, a dog cannot reach its own throat with the tongue.

Indeed! I wonder if she is dribbling or drooling excessively? Are her teeth and mouth OK?
Is this a sudden thing or been going on for a while?

To answer your question about the colour, that pinkish brown is usual for dogs, either where they have been licking (saliva) or if their eyes run (tear staining). I'm not 100% sure if it due to a natural pigment in the fluids as it is in rats (porphyrin) or due to bacteria.

Collar buckle or tag rubbing on the skin, especially if brass think that can stain coats.

A fungal infection of the folds of the lip can be quite common in Cockers and this can cause dibbling.  Or a tooth or gum problem.  Probably best to let the vet take a look.

she only wears a collar when she leaves the house for walks and stuff. never wears one a home and most of them are leather apart from her hi viz night-time one and thats material and plastic.

not dribbling at all and teeth and gums are all ok.  she also has some of the pink-red-brownish stain around the armpits, between the toes and girlie bits too. she has been done so i'm not sure about the hormone thing. she has had this for quite a while now. she doesn't seem too bothered about it. its just i get asked by sooo many people what its all about and i can't really give them an answer that makes them happy i'm not abusing her or something.   any tips on how to remove the colur from the hair would be great though.

Might be worth checking the diet, what do you feed? And have you had a closer look at the skin? Is it red/inflammed at all around those areas?

feed her on tripe mince. has treats for beeing good girl and odd things here and there.  sometimes the skin looks a bit puffy or itchy looking.    if its diet, what coould it be thats making her like this?

What age is she?  Not too familiar with American Cocker coats but might she be simply developing tan points in maturity.

she is 2 years and 7 months old. very playfull always bossing the cats around.  she also gets very waxy ears. dark wax sometimes smelly. but i expect that from her with her ears being an american cocker.

What are you doing for her ear hygiene?

her ears - couple of things... using a witch hazel and water solution to clean to bits i can see, and this johnsons ear cleanser, which i got from the pet store, to clean the inner ear. i sometimes use wet wipes to clean the ear after the ear cleanser has worked.  am i doing ok? or do you have another suggestion that will work?

I think that all sound very reasonable but I have felt over the years of keeping cockers the more you fiddle the more they produce wax so don't over do it.  Some people swear by thornit although I have never used it.

ahh yes i have tried thornit before. i got it from the dog groomers cause they used it on her when i took her in. don't go there antmore cause it was too expensive - £45 every 6 weeks -  so i trim her myself now and saving a fortune!!  the thornit smell nice and cleanish but didn't really feel that it did alot. haven't used it in ages. maybe i should try it again.

>and this johnsons ear cleanser, which i got from the pet store, to clean the inner ear.

It can be very dangerous to put anything actually down the ear canal if the eardrum is damaged (as it can easily be by pressure from a build-up of wax). Only wipe clean the bits you can see - otherwise get the vet to check the ear canals first.

does she scratch a lot?  My friends Welsh Springer had belly and armpits a rusty colour when she was having a daily visiting dog with a flea problem. 

It was flea allergy dermatitis.  So I wondered if it could be a contact allergy, if not to parasites then to something being used in the home like detergent in bedding, floor cleaner, any of the odour killing things like Shake n Vac or Febreeze.

My Friend would treat the visiting dog with flea killer but every Monday he came back with fleas as they couldn't get through to the owners that they had to treat the house.  when eh stopped coming to their house to day board the itching and redness on her bitch cleared up, and she grew a better coat (she had very little feathering during that time).

I also wondered if it could be a yeast overgrowth, or fungal infection, as you said she gets mucky ears which can be part of the same issue.  Malassessia is one kind of issue with the skin.

Hibiscrub diluted and used as a shampoo will kill both bacteria and fungus.

Maybe worth asking your vet for an allergy test.  Could be indoor or outdoor allergies that are causing it too.

> sometimes the skin looks a bit puffy or itchy looking

Sounds like an allergy to me. Now you have to find out what to !!  Has the vet seen this ?

> feed her on tripe mince

If you are feeding her on tripe mince only, I think you need to add some variety to her diet. Tripe alone will not be a balanced diet. Variety is the key to feeding a raw diet (I assume it is raw and not cooked?). It needs to be a variety of meat along with bones and offal (fruit/veg optional).

her main food is raw mince tripe, but she has accasional biscuits and treats. she does have treats too. and sometimes will have the odd veg if i cook it so its soft. my mum brings her the odd bone or two too - she loves that.
everybody is being so kind and helpful, thank you.

It doesn't sound to me that her diet is balanced and varied enough which could be contributing to her problems.

If you want to feed a raw/barf type diet I would suggest you have a read of a previous thread on here, on which Tohme gives an excellent post regarding raw feeding (http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/board/topic_show.pl?pid=1277816;hl=raw%20diet#pid1277816).

"Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats" by Kymythy Schulze is a very easy to read book which should point you in the right direction.

If you want to take the guesswork out of feeding a raw diet I'd recommend Natural Instinct, which is a raw, ready prepared balanced diet (http://www.naturalinstinct.com/).  There are others but I find NI suits my dogs very well.

Or you could feed a good quality dry complete food, or a mix of raw and dry as I do.

thanks for all the comments. have been really helpfull.  have bought some hibiscrub and some nizoral.
washed her with the nizoral on saturday and gave her a gentle wash in certain areas with a diluted solution of the hibiscrub today (mon). hoping that this plan will achieve some results. 
thanks again will update later. i just hope that i can return the help that everyone has given someday.
happy holidays. x

Thornit you have to use every day for a few weeks to get on top of anything, then once a week there after.
I have a yank who had years of ear problems, constantly at the vets, I then used Thornit again and cleared the ears up and have been clear for over a year and half now. No more vets visits.
You can buy Thornit from Ebay :-
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thornit-Canker-Ear-Mite-Powder-20gr-FREE-POST-/190616312182?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Dogs&hash=item2c619e1976

Lea :) :)