Black Crusted Sore on Dog’s Neck

by Ann C.
(Manchester, MD)

The sore on my dog’s neck developed about 6 weeks ago and was found by accident when petting him. At first I thought it was a tick. The area of this lesion seems to be higher than where a prong of this collar would lay.

You have to lift his lift his head to be able to see it, so it is more on his neck and not his chest. He wears a shock-collar but we doubt the collar has gone off in years. As soon as he comes back in the house after going out to do his “business”, the collar is removed, and he never sleeps or naps in it.

When I first found the lesion,I thought that it was a dab of black tar or black gunk that had stuck to his neck somehow, but that made no sense. I ALSO RULED OUT A TICK.

When I tried to examine it, he flinched when I touched it and whimpered because I think it was also pulling the hair that was sticking to it. It was very hard and attached firmly to the skin and hair, and lays flat, almost like a sore on a child’s knee after they fall and scrape it, and a scab has formed.

Trying to see what it was, I cleaned the area with a mild soap and soft rag, and then applied some Bacitracin. After that, over the next couple of days, he would let me examine it and touch it.

Keeping it moist seemed to help him a lot. He is an inside dog and only goes out for walks on a leash 2x a day and to do his business and look around the grass covered yard.

Within days of applying the Bacitracin, the sore started sloughing off and little bits would fall off here and there when you would lightly touch or clean the area. It actually appeared to break apart — a few hairs would fall off, taking with it the black sore stuck to its base, and under this area would be pink skin, and no blood.

Within days, the entire black sore was gone and the area appeared to be pink flat skin but bald, but not bleeding, and I thought that maybe it was gone for good and maybe it was some kind of tar or a sore that was from a single incident.

However, the other day I again touched the area and it was back the same way it was the first time I saw it, and again he did not want me to touch it. I am keeping it clean and putting Bacitracin on it. It appears to be smaller than a dime and never bleeds. He never itches it and it doesn’t seem to bother him in any way, other than when it is dry and hard. If I keep it soft, it is okay.

Charlie is a 7 year old male basset hound. He has developed numerous non-cancerous tumors over his body, and his entire body is bumpy and lumpy, but no lesion has ever been above the skin. We had numerous, over 7, tumors removed a few years ago which all came back negative on biopsy.

Charlie had more than 57 sutures covering his body where the tumors were removed and biopsied, and I doubt if I would do it again. Since all of those were negative, we are just watching the others that have now come up. None are open or bleeding, and all are under the skin.

Should we take him back to the Vet for about the 50th visit since a puppy or do you have any idea what this could be – a wart?

His litter-mate sister, Lucy, had a pink sore on her ear which was biopsied and was negative, and then turned into a black sore like this, which quickly dried up and sloughed off like this. It was also black and hard, but it has never come back.