Pink belly

[Tfng]

After reading the percentage of mange thread I thought I would start my own thread on pink belly.

I don't believe pink belly is caused strictly by mange. I haven't been able to find any credible source of info that says mange starts with a pink belly. What I have found is that light coloured fur can be stained from excessive licking. Saliva contains porphyrins which will stain fur pink/red/brown.

I have had light coloured dogs in the past. Currently I have a Great Pyrenees so she is pure white. The fur on her genitals is pink, the fur between her toes is pink and she has a small amount of staining around her lips. These are the most licked parts of her body.

I've noticed on coyotes that the fur between the toes is pink. My thoughts are pink belly is caused by excessive licking. I suppose they could lick excessively due to an itchy mange affliction but would it also not be reasonable to think they are licking itchy flea bites? I know if I carried the number of fleas some of these coyotes do I would be very itchy. Stress can also cause excessive licking.

If mange starts with a pink belly why does it show on the tail first most often?

At this point I've filed the pink belly is mange train of thought under wives tale.

[Secret coulee]

This is my feelings as well as a myth,until proven diffrent.
Im my area i see mange come through about every 5 yrs and only about 5-8% get mange bad.that being said on most years a very large percentage of my dogs have pink belly and other years not as bad,why i dont no.
I guess what im tryin to say here is if pink belly was a factor to mange then i would think i would see a really big % of mange in my area on particular yrs witch has never been the case.but regardless of what pink belly really is its here its everywere and always has been in my life.
Hope somebody has some great insight on this because its sompthing i think about quite often

[coy coyote]

I've never seen pink belly on healthy coyotes. Mostly older coyotes with hair missing from the neck and younger skinny coyotes. Could there be a reason for the constant licking that causes it. Parisites,mites,mange? The only time I see pink on my collies is after an injury in the paw or toes. They lick it. So your on the right track with saliva turning the hair pink.

[Tfng]

I agree that coyotes with pink belly don't seem as healthy. I caught an old male that only had one canine tooth left and some rotten incisors. He wasn't particularly skinny but his belly was quite pink. He seemed to my inexperienced eye to be well furred.

[HunterDave]

Both dogs that I caught that had mange also had bad cases of pink belly. Out of curiosity I checked the first one's belly and it was full of mites. One other yote that I caught must have just been starting as there was discolouring under the front legs and between the back legs. The hair was thin in both areas. Saliva is a reasonable explanation for the discolouring IMO, but I think that it'd be fair to say that the licking was caused by the mites.