Finding black specks or possibly small black bugs on your dog’s skin or in your dog’s fur can be puzzling at first. This feeling might change to alarm as you wonder what it could be. There are a number of possible explanations for finding black specks in your dog’s fur or on its skin. I will review 7 of the most likely causes for this condition and how you treat them.
Table of Contents
Black bugs or black specks on dogs
The seven most likely reasons for finding black dots or specks on your dog’s skin or coat are:
- Fleas
- Flea dirt
- Ticks
- Follicular casting
- Comedones
- Lentigines
- Hyperpigmentation
If you’ve been brushing your dog or petting your dog and your eye suddenly catches sight of a small black speck racing through the fur, chances are you’ve detected a flea. Fleas are about 1-3mm in length with shiny flat bodies. They can be difficult to capture with your fingers as they can hop away quickly. After a flea consumes a blood meal, they deposit their feces on their host and this looks like tiny crumbles of dirt. It is coined “flea dirt” for this handy reason.
Flea dirt can be identified by using a flea comb ( a small plastic comb with many narrow close-set tines). The flea comb may not always catch a flea but it will collect fur and flea dirt. You can then brush the fur and dirt off the comb onto a sheet of white paper or a paper towel. Gently add a few drops of water and you can either smear a dirt crumble across the page with your finger to see the reddish streak or add enough water to see it turn crimson in color (the color of blood).
If you think you’ve found fleas on your dog, you should start flea treatment right away.
Flea treatment for your dog and for your home
I recommend purchasing Capstar. This drug will kill fleas quickly within 30 minutes of giving to your dog and is available without a prescription. It is very safe and can be used in puppies as small as 2 lbs. You can give Capstar with a regular monthly flea preventative.
If you are using monthly flea preventative and have given capstar and you are still seeing fleas on your dog, you may have to treat your home for fleas.
Continuing to find fleas on your dog despite the use of capstar and a monthly preventative, suggests that you may have fleas jumping onto your dog from inside your home.
To treat your home you should start by washing all bedding in hot water and drying it on high heat. Give all your carpeting a good vacuum, preferably using a steam vacuum if you have that.
Because fleas can lay hundreds of eggs it is important to try to kill the eggs and immature stages that may be in hard to reach areas like the cracks of your hardwood flooring.
Knockout spray is a product that is an insecticide to treat adult and immature flea stages. It is useful to spray into hard to reach areas like the cracks in hardwood floors. You need to be very cautious around cats as they are highly sensitive to permethrins and can develop tremors and seizures. The product information says to remove pets for 2 hours while the product dries and to cover aquariums.
Natural flea treatment for your home and yard
If you’re looking for more natural products to use in your home, Flea Busters is a product that is considered safe and also effective. It’s active ingredient is boric acid (Orthoboric Acid 64.00%). The product acts by dehydrating the flea larvae and breaking the life cycle of the flea. It may take up to 5 weeks to totally eliminate fleas from your home, but this product does provide a money back guarantee. This product is very safe and only dangerous to pets if inhaled or ingested in large volumes.
Diatomaceous earth:
Some people advocate using diatomaceous earth. This is also used to dehydrate the flea larvae . Food grade diatomaceous earth is sprinkled over carpeting and then vacuumed up after 48 hours. This product is not as effective as Flea Busters in my opinion. It’s not recommended to use this on your pet as the powder can really be abrasive if inhaled.
Neem Oil:
Neem oil is a natural oil that acts as a pet-safe tick, mosquito and flea repellant. The problem is it is often mixed with citronella oil which is not considered safe for dogs. . It is possible as small amounts are okay to use because Citronella spray collars are utilized by some veterinary behaviorists to prevent barking in dogs. The spray is not directed at the dog, but the spray and the odor is used as a deterrent for barking.
Neem oil by itself has a garlic odor which is not pleasing and that is why it appears to be mixed with a citrus scented oil like citronella a lot.
Nematodes:
To rid your yard of fleas, you can use a natural product called nematodes. Nematodes are a naturally occurring microorganism that comes shipped on a damp sponge. You rinse the sponge into a bucket and use the properly diluted concentration to spray around your yard according to manufacturer’s instructions. Nematodes are also used to get rid of certain pests like some types of worms and beetles. They are considered harmless to pets and people.
Little black bugs on your dog that are not fleas
If you’ve determined that the little black bugs on your dog are not fleas, it is possible they could be small ticks.
Immature ticks are called nymphs and these ticks are the most likely to transmit disease with their bite. They are the size of a poppy seed. The adult ticks are larger and much more easily identified, although still small at about 3mm in size. They enlarge as they have a blood meal. Ticks are flat top to bottom, unlike fleas which are flat side to side. They are in the arachnid family and have 8 legs.
Tick prevention for dogs
Oral tick preventatives: Bravecto, Simparica, Credilio and Nextgard. These are the newest class of tick prevention made with Isoxazoline medication that has a very fast tick-kill. The faster a tick is killed, the less opportunity is has to transmit a disease.It works within 24 hours to kill any attached ticks. It also kills fleas and several parts of the flea life cycle.
Bravecto is a chewable that works for 3 months at a time. Nexgard, Simparica and Credilio are monthly chewables.
Topical tick preventative formulations: Frontline, Advantix, Vectra and Bravecto.
Frontline Plus contains fipronil and s-methoprene Fipronil kills adult fleas and ticks and S-methoprene kills flea eggs and larvae.
K9 Advantix contains Imidacloprid and Permethrin and Pyriproxyfen. This combination kills both adults and immature forms of fleas, ticks and also serves as a tick repellant
Bravecto is also available as a top spot formulation: It is an Isoxazoline in a topspot formulation and can be given every 3 months.
Vectra is a top spot that contains dinotefuran and permethrin (insecticides that act on the insect nervous system) and pyriproxyfen which is an insect growth regulator and stops the flea life cycle
Tick collars: Seresto, Preventic
Seresto: The active ingredients are imidacloprid and flumethrin . Imidacloprid, which affects the central nervous system of fleas, is an insecticide. Flumethrin repels and kills ticks. Last 6 to 9 months. This collar remains effective with swimming and bathing.
Preventic collar whose active ingredient is Amitraz. This is a tick insecticide which also acts as a tick repellant. Lasts up to 3 months and starts to work within 24 hours. Remove before bathing. The collar can withstand normal rainfall conditions.
Tips for tick prevention:
Do not allow children to handle the tick collars . To be effective the collar must be in contact with the skin. You should be able to slide 2 fingers under the collar or it is considered too tight.
When your dog comes inside after being in tall grass or woods, always search for ticks. If you see a tick anchored, remove it promptly. There are tick removal tools that help you to remove the tick and its mouthparts and aid in removal of embedded ticks.
If you are finding ticks every day on your dog, talk to your vet about doubling up on tick prevention with either an oral tick or topical tick preventative and a tick collar or an oral and a topical tick preventative alternating every 2 weeks.
Dark specks in the fur of a dog that are not fleas or ticks
Follicular casting is the build up of surface skin cells and keratin debris that builds up as waxy debris around the hair shaft. These waxy plugs or casts can be seen riding up the hair shafts and can look like black or dark colored specks in the fur. See pictures below.
Follicular casts can be seen with seborrheic diseases (scaling diseases of dogs). This can be an inherited disease of dogs but can be seen with immune mediated disease of the skin affecting the skin glands (sebaceous adenitis), hormonal imbalances such as with Cushing’s disease, mite infections with demodex mites that live inside hair follicles and ringworm skin infections.
If you dog is on an isoxazoline class of flea/tick medication it is highly unlikely that your dog will have a demodex infection as this drug effectively treats these mites. For seborrhea in dogs, it’s helpful to use a medicated shampoo to help remove scale and grease or a mousse that you can massage into your dog’s skin and coat. Another good product is a spot-on product that helps to restore the skin’s natural protective barriers.
Black dots on a dog’s skin
Another cause for black specks present on the skin in your dog are comedones. Comedones are clogged hair follicles, just like blackheads. Comedones are not as common in dogs as they are in people. If comedones are newly developing in a middle aged to older dog, you may want to test for an endocrine disease called Cushings. If there are patches of red skin, some hair loss and crusting along with comedones, a skin scrape may be recommended by your veterinarian to check for demodex mites.
However, if your dog is on an Isoxazoline class of flea/tick medication (nexgard, bravecto, credilio or simparica) it is highly improbable that your dog can have demodex mites. Some short coated breeds of dogs like Boxers and Dobermans are more prone to hair follicle inflammation. This can lead to secondary infection on the skin and clogged hair follicles.
Hair from a short coated Boxer dog that is coated with keratin debris (a follicular cast). This dog also had comedones on his skin (see below).
Black dots on this dog’s groin area represent comedones or black heads.
A shampoo containing Benzoyl peroxide that works well for comedones is:
DermaBenSs Shampoo. Keep in mind that this product can bleach fabrics and can be drying to the skin. You may want to follow up with EpiSoothe pet creme rinse.
Black dots or freckles on dog skin: Lentigines
Another reason for black specks on your dog’s skin is from freckle-like spots called lentigo. These happen more commonly in middle aged to older dogs and are produced by overactive melanocytes in the skin. These are not considered pre-cancerous or dangerous.
Excess numbers of lentigines can occur and is called Lentiginosis profusa. There is a predisposition for this condition in the Pug.
Tiny black dots on dog skin that look like dirt that won’t wash off.
If you’re finding small specks on your dog that look like dirt and won’t wash off, this is very likely excess melanin pigment deposited in the skin from chronic inflammation. It’s more common to see this change in the inguinal area, armpits and belly.
This is typically due to allergies triggering skin inflammation. The hyperpigmentation can resolve once the underlying trigger goes away. This can be seasonally influenced. To read more about diagnosing and treating skin allergies in dogs see this article: https://www.vethelpful.com/causes-of-skin-allergies-and-skin-infections-in-dogs/
If there is enough inflammation, sometimes secondary skin infections occur with either yeast or bacteria. You might then see flaky light brown circular lesions on the skin called epidermal collarettes.
Hyperpigmentation on the skin can look like dirt that won’t wash off.
Conclusion:
There are many skin changes that can cause pigmentary changes on the skin or flakes of skin that build up around the hair follicle that look like dark specks in the fur. Finally, there are fleas and ticks that can crawl in your dog’s fur and crawl on and attach or bite your dog’s skin.
Sometimes these changes are so small and tiny it can be difficult to know exactly what is going on. Luckily, most of the time the causes of flecks and black bugs in the fur and on the skin of dogs are due to easily treatable conditions.