Poodle hair color chaging

Question
Kim -  We have a silver toy poodle that is 3 years old.  She was a pretty grey clor but we recently had her groome and she now looks like a skunk as she has an irregular black stripe down her back.  We took her to a vet and he said that she mayhave suffered some kind of trauma.  She is inside or with us all the time and can't imagine where she had this trauma except at the groomer's.  We have used this place and specific groomer before with no problems.  What do you think?  Will she ever be an all over silver again?

Thanks for your input.  Kathy Marsh

Answer
Hello Kathy,
As your Vet suggested, your dog may have suffered some kind of trauma or hot spot that caused some scaring down her back.
Your groomer may have razor burned her there on her back, or she could have been exposed to some kind of skin infection from exposure to another infected dog.
What happens is that when there is trauma on the skin, the hair starts regrowing  as if on a new puppy.  In your dogs case, the hair has started to grow in black again and will eventually turn Silver, but it will take as long as it took normally to turn silver.

I have a Silver boy that this same occurrence happened to.  He has a large black patch on his back that is slowly turning back to Silver.  In 6 months or so, it will be back to his normal Silver color.  

I hope this has helped you some.  If you have other questions, please feel free to ask.  

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim