As a veterinary technician, I saw lots of dogs with hot spots, technically called a moist dermatitis. A pet owner would call in a panic for an appointment, because overnight their dog now had a large, irritated bloody spot with no hair, and the dog just wouldn’t stop licking.

As a pet owner, I’ve never had a dog with a hot spot.  Border Collies are not particularly prone to them.  Now I know what pet owners go through.

A summer issue and self trauma

Hot spots are most common in the summer, and although their is no one specific cause, fleas, allergies, breed genetics (very common in Golden & Labrador Retrievers), and physical medical problems ( for  instance impacted anal glands) may play a role. Hot spots are really all self trauma – something starts the compulsive itch and lick cycle, and your dog is doing all the damage to himself.

Moist eczema’s all are complicated by bacteria.  That wet, warm skin trauma is the perfect environment for bacteria to take over.  Once the itch cycle starts, your dog will not leave it alone and veterinary intervention is necessary.  I’ve seen dogs left outside end up with maggots, since flies will be attracted to the area and may lay eggs  there.

My Speck started on the weekend, licking his butt and anal glands.  He’s never had anal gland issues, but there’s always a first time.  It didn’t seem all that bad, so I keep him busy over the weekend to leave it alone.  I didn’t feel any impacted anal glands, not were they full.  Monday when we got up his rectum was all red, and now hair was missing all around his anal area, and he had raw bloody sores under his tail.  Time for a veterinary visit.

It HUrts!

Your dog is not going to want you touching these wounds.  Especially large hot spots, maybe 5 -6 inches in diameter, will require good cleaning to help rid the wound of bacteria.  This usually means sedating your dog. the hair will be clipped, and the wound cleaned and disinfected.

Speck really didn’t want us looking at his tail and butt, and so, at the vet’s we left him for sedation and cleaning.  Later that day we picked him up, with a shaved monkey butt, a big Elizabethan collar , and antibiotics for the skin infection.  Oh, and pain meds!

The e-collar he had was clear, so he didn’t loose all his peripheral vision, but the first time a dog wears one, it catches on everything – door jambs, cabinets edges, my legs.  The “cone head” has to stay on at all times, especially early in treatment, because everything still itches.   It also must be large enough so that it extends past his nose, making it impossbile (well , almost) to reach his wounds.

The e-collar means no playing, no Frisbee, no Kongs with peanut butter (unless I hold it, because he can’t hold it with his paws and lick it at the same time.  The collar gets in the way!)  All of this actually creates stress for him, because these things are normal activities now taken away.  And we all know Border Collies, as well as most other dogs, like to have patterns and routines to follow.

at home treatment

We only had oral medications to give, but your vet may prescribe a spray or ointment to apply topically to the skin.  Some will help stop itching, some may be for the infection.

Depending on the case and the dog, treatment will easily last a week, and in our case 2 weeks.  After a week, with no improvement, and Speck trying to reach his tail and creating more issues further down where he could reach, another vet visit was in order.  I’d also tried over the counter antibiotic ointment, and Benadryl)since it’s for allergies, it has an antihistamine in it, which helps with itching, and as a bonus makes a dog slightly drowsy).

His antibiotics were gone, and the urge to lick and chew still there.  This time we ended up stopping his Rimadyl (for hip arthritis) and starting a course of cortisone, and a prescription of pain/behavioral drug to help stop the compulsive behavior of licking – he is a Border Collie after all.

I also bought some Dr Wheatgrass recovery spray and ointment , all natural herbal products, which have helped our own skin wounds, and certainly wouldn’t hurt Speck.  Anything to help!

Now at the 2 week mark, I have just started taking off the e-collar when I can watch him.  He still still start to lick every couple hours, and I stop him, and then put the collar back on.  And he definitely wears it at night, since that is often when the compulsive licking will go on unobserved.

Of course I didn’t think to take pictures of this whole process, but here’s a veterinary article that has good pictures of a moist eczema, as well as  more veterinary oriented information.

It’s interesting to note this is a dog issue –  cats are not prone to hot spots (although behavioral issue will cause them to lick and remove hair, but the skin does not become irritated).

If your dog has had hot spots, what did you find helped the most?