Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog: Unexplained Bruising

The main thing to understand about bruising in dogs is that while a trauma can cause a bruise, it would need to be quite a substantial trauma. Dog skin is much thicker than human skin, and they have the further protection provided by their fur.

When I see a bruise on my dog, trauma is not my prime suspect.


Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog: Unexplained Bruising

The only time JD had a "legitimate" bruise was when he had a close encounter with a steel rack. They had a disagreement about which one of them should move out of the way. The steel rack won. JD had a history of believing that if he persists in the game of chicken, the object will move eventually.

Surgical sites end up with a lot of bruising.


If your dog ever had major surgery, such as to repair an injured knee, you would have noticed the huge amount of bruising all around it. This is further exaggerated by the fact that a large area around the incision is shaved. Otherwise, you wouldn't see much of anything.

Why would surgery cause so much bruising since it's not an impact blow?

A bruise is a discoloration caused by blood spilling out of damaged capillaries under the skin.


In other words, it is the leaked red blood cells that give the bruise its appearance. You might see where I'm going with this. What if you find bruising on your dog and there has been no trauma and no surgery to explain it? What else could cause the displacement of blood from the blood vessels?

Blood is not clotting the way it should.


The body is designed to allow blood to flow where it needs to be while keeping it contained where it belongs. The two aspects involved are blood vessel permeability and blood clotting.

When the blood clotting system breaks down, blood can leak freely even from the tiniest little "nick." Meaning it doesn't take an actual trauma in the real sense of the word to cause bleeding. All it can take is normal wear and tear of the blood vessels. When everything functions normally, the body easily repairs the leak. When you see unexplained bruising, you know that something went wrong with the system.

The potential causes include toxicity, auto-immune disorder, infections, and others.

The blood vessels can't hold the blood.


Blood vessels that become too fragile, as well as increase in blood pressure, can impair the body's ability to keep blood from leaking out. Vascular disease can also lead to unexplained bruising.

Either way, it's bad news.


Weird bruising on her tongue and belly was one of the symptoms Jasmine experienced after her hyperthermia horror. Her platelets were devastated by the event.

The tongue, gums, eyes, and belly are the most likely places where you can notice unexplained bruising. It could look like small dots, specks, or large areas. It's a sign of a serious problem. If you find that on your dog, don't wait and see a veterinarian.

Note: Clotting problems caused by toxicity, such as rodenticide poisoning, it is more likely to see bleeding from the nose or mouth, pale gums, severe lethargy and other signs reflecting internal bleeding.

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Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog

Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog now available in paperback and Kindle. Each chapter includes notes on when it is an emergency.

Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog is an award-winning guide to help you better understand what your dog is telling you about their health and how to best advocate for them. 

Learn how to see and how to think about changes in your dog’s appearance, habits, and behavior. Some signs that might not trigger your concern can be important indicators that your dog needs to see a veterinarian right away. Other symptoms, while hard to miss, such as diarrhea, vomiting, or limping, are easy to spot but can have a laundry list of potential causes, some of them serious or even life-threatening. 

Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog is a dog health advocacy guide 101. It covers a variety of common symptoms, including when each of them might be an emergency. 

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Comments

  1. Thanks for this information! I don't recall ever seeing a bruise on our dog that didn't have to do with surgery. But this is great info to keep in mind in case I ever do.

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  2. Wow, I'm not sure I would have worried about bruises. I am very clumsy and always have weird bruises so I probably would assume the same thing if I saw bruises on Ruby. Glad I have more information now.

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    1. Not at all the same with dogs. Though if you bruise easily, you might need to give it another thought too.

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  3. Thanks again for such an informative post. I don't think I've ever seen a bruise on any of my animals. My dog Jack had spinal surgery and I don't even remember seeing bruises then.

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    1. Really? Was it a surgery with a scope? Those wouldn't bruise as much. But every traditional surgery comes with large, nasty bruising. Not really from what is done internally but from the disruption of the surface tissues.

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  4. Good to know what a bruise on a dog could be. Learning something everyday!

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  5. Wow. I never would have thought about bruising on the tongue area! Thanks for sharing yet another informative and helpful post. Having knowledge about this odd happening with bruising will help many pet parents keep better care of their dogs.

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    1. Yes, Jasmine had them on her tongue, on her belly ... could have been elsewhere too but those, naturally, wouldn't be visible.

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  6. I don't think I've ever seen bruising on my dogs, but I'll definitely be on the lookout now.

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  7. This was an interesting read. I never would have thought to check for bruising on the tongue, or that it could be something serious.

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    1. It's not like I was checking. But she was also panting heavily so it was hard to miss.

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  8. None of my dogs have had bruises but Kilo has some dark stains on his groin area that make me a bit nervous.

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  9. I've never noticed any bruising on any of my dogs, but it's good to know that I need to be a bit more concerned than one would expect if I ever do.

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  10. Wow! I don't think I've ever noticed bruising on a dog. The only time I saw it on the girls was after their spay surgery and Truffle's bladder stone surgery.

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  11. I definitely haven't paid much attention to bruising, I would not have thought it could be something bad.
    Love & Biscuits,
    Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them

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  12. Great info. Thankfully, the only time I noticed bruising was after surgeries. I would definitely be alarmed if I saw bruises otherwise. Pinning to share!

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