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Background

I have a 2.5 years old male, mixed breed dog. We believe his ancestry is mainly cocker spaniel, with a fair amount of poodle and maybe some other thing.

He is in general good health, he is quite obedient, he runs a lot he runs off-leash by the bike every day and he is a happy dog. His eyes have always been the source of slight concern though. A year ago, in the mornings, he sometimes had mildly red eyes that seemed to be a bit itchy. Both eyes were typically of similar concern. It seems to have been mainly resolved now. One time, very early, when he was only 9 weeks old, he got a weird eye infection, during which the left eye was red and quite severely swollen (I posted this when this issue happened). He typically has a little bit of dry eye discharge in the morning but it is not much to other dogs I've seen.

Question

Here is a picture of my dog's left eye today

enter image description here

In the corner of his eye, on the lower eyelid, he has a black stain. To my partner and me, it seems that this black stain has been growing throughout his whole life. I am not aware of a family history of cancer or anything like that but I don't know his parents very well.

Is this black stain of medical concern or is it just a harmless patch of melanin? Should I bring the dog to a vet?

Allison C
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Remi.b
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2 Answers2

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There is a chance that your pup came into contact with a branch while he was out and about, leaving a small bruise by his eye. There is also a chance that this is a birthmark which went unnoticed -- he was much smaller then and the mark would have been as well. I don't think you should obsess over it, but if you notice any changes, ask your Vet for their opinion (and show them this "before" pic so they can see the change for themselves).

elbrant
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We went to a vet to ask. He said that we need to make a costly biopsy. As I did not really like or trust this vet, I went to another vet to get a second opinion. He said that he is convinced that it is just a skin pigmentation and that there is nothing to worry about. He also added that an biopsy would I followed this second advice.

This was two years ago. My dog stain is still there (and kept growing) and my dog seems to be doing just fine.

Remi.b
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