Pets Have Nipples–Even the Males
Yesterday a client brought a young male Pit Bull puppy to see me. The client was worried about eight small lumps located along the dog’s underside. Could they be flea bites? Some sort of rash? A strange form of juvenile cancer?
She was surprised to learn that the lumps in question were the dog’s nipples.
She asked why a male would have nipples. Before the advent of modern embryology, that question triggered an existential dilemma for many people. But these days the answer is known.
I started off with, “for the same reason that men have nipples.” That seemed to satisfy her, and she declined to listen to the rest of my explanation. It’s probably for the best, since the explanation is quite boring: the cells that develop into nipples differentiate prior to the release of sex hormones that lead to sexual dimorphism.
You have questions. 
So funny you posted this. Just a couple of days ago I saw a male pit bull who had rather large nipples (8 of them). I had not seen anything like it before and I’ve been a volunteer at a shelter for 7 years! Thanks for sharing the info!
I noticed that one of my male pit bull’s nipples is very swollen, much larger than the other nipples. What would cause this & should I be concerned about malignancy?
Eve your dog’s condition warrents at the very least a call to your vet. Important factors they will want to know is, is there discharge, how swollen and is there reddness (irritation) or a rash.
This could be something and it could be nothing. But for your dogs sake it is always best for your vet to see it and tell you it is nothing.
I never knew that! That’s funny…I always thought it was just the females, guess I was wrong.