Poodles Fur

Question
My 10 year old white male 3 lb poodle is changing color on his back from white to a kind of yellow. It is also getting thicker. He is not on any medication nor has there been a drastic change in his food.

Can you tell me why this might be happening.

Thank You

Answer
Hello Maureen,
It could be a number of things causing your dog to change color in one spot like this.  It could be an age spot (like the age spots you sometimes see on elderly people).  I have seen dogs get spots like this as they age, but its uncommon.  It could be due to a medical condition that could be developing.  You might check with your Vet if you are concerned that it could be something medical.  
It could also be due to a recent injury at that spot.  Sometimes when a dog gets an injury on their body, as the hair starts to grow back over the injury it grows in in the color that the dog was when it was a puppy.  Its like the injury rebooted the hair follicles and they start regrowing as if they were on a new puppy.  If he recently had a skin injury it could be from that.  
It could also be from a chemical imbalance (like with tear stains around the eyes/mouth/or private areas can sometimes get on a white dog), but the chances of that are more rare and you tend to see it more over a larger part of the body.  

Unfortunally, there isn't really anything that you can do to help get the color back to normal unless you find out what is causing the discoloration in the first place.  If it is something medical, your Vet can prescribe something to fix the imbalance and the color should go back to normal.  
If its due to age or age spots, there isn't really anything you can do unless you bleach the hair white again when it starts to discolor.  

I wish I had a better answer for you, but I hope this helps you some and if I can help you further, please feel free to ask.

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim