Dog had surgery--hair is growing in silver

[ScottieDog]

Back in September my 10-year-old female Scottish Terrier had major abdominal surgery. My vet said she has recovered and her hair has grown back extremely thick on her tummy and her legs where she was shaved. This weekend we gave our sweetie her first hair cut since her surgery. Her ears are now silver.

She is a black and silver brindle Scottie with black as the predominate color. Her beard has been streaked with silver/gray for several years. The fur in the areas where she was shaved grew back jet black. Her ears were not shaved for the operation but have changed color since the surgery. Is this a result of the surgery or a natural part of aging? The difference is quite extreme since her last grooming (pre-surgery).

She looks adorable with these cute silver tufts on her ears. They were not as noticeable while she was shaggy. I wondered if anyone else had a dog that had its coat color change following surgery. Thank you.

[hazelrunpack]

She's sporting a more distinguished look now with silver ears, eh?

My inclination would be that the change was part of the natural aging process-some dogs just suddenly begin going gray...or silver as the case might be. But you hear stories of people's hair going gray or white as the result of some stress all the time. Maybe the stress of her surgery contributed to the sudden change?

At 10, I'm surprised you're not seeing more gray/silver on your baby--seems like ours always start showing a lot of silver by age 6.

So do we get pics of her any time soon? And did you get the results of the lymphoma tests yet?

[ScottieDog]

She is 5 months post surgery today. She had follow-up cancer screening X-rays, bloodwork and tests for diabetes and Cushings in November. These came back giving her a clean bill of health. I took Tipper to the vet last week for a nail trim and had the vet give her a well-dog check up. He is pleased with how she is doing. He is keeping a close watch on her lymph glands, and said they felt OK. We have no idea what caused her spleen to enlarge to the point of near rupturing--my vet said we may never know. But to date her cancer tests have all come back negative. My vet will run bloodwork and x-rays again in a few months. He said he due to the type of surgery she had, he wants to test on a six month basis for a year to 18 months, then move to annual. Knowing how serious the surgery was, we feel each day is a gift and really do treasure her.

Last week was the 3 month point from her tests, and I wanted the vet to just look her over and make sure she was doing OK. She really did need her nails clipped. It is starting to get warmer here, and my vet said she was healthy enough for her haircut. It has been about 7-8 months since she was groomed, so that may be part of the reason her ears looked so different. She gets a little stressed from grooming, so we couldn't do it right after her surgery, then winter came and it was so cold. She seems more comfortable now--I'm sure you can imagine what a wooly-bear she was.

Our 12 year-old male Scottie has had very little coat change. His beard did get gray-streaked around 6 years and he is getting a few white hairs around his eyes, besides that, he is still jet black.

I don't know how to post pictures. I can assure you they are both extremely cute. Tippy just looks a little more dignified.