Dog Hot Spots: Save Your Pet the Anguish

Dog hot spots are not your pet's erogenous zones, they are festering open sores which sometimes appear as blotches in fur. In layman's language, dog hot spots are acral lick dermatitis, which feels just about as good as it sounds.

Suppose you had no opposable digits, just paws. You can't pluck. Or catch flies with chop sticks. Or juggle. Horse flies keep biting you. You can't build a fly swatter, or even use one if you could build it. As you have claws not fingers, it is very difficult to scratch your horse fly bites lightly. Or gently. Your only options are teeth. Or claws. The horse fly bite itches and grows more irritating. You scratch it. It still itches. Finally you chew at it. It is tough to chew something gently.

Claw and nibble your skin long enough, or even for a very short time, and it would become chafed. A human knows that. Does a dog? Even if a human knew, enduring an itch or irritation day after day, week after week, would be tough. Especially if a dog had nothing to read or watch on TV or it was a slow week at work. That itch might be all he could think about. He keeps nibbling until there is a bald spot, and then a sore, and then a wound.

Now imagine you are a Yeti. That is, covered in fur. Your warm, covered body is a Club Med for mites. You can never get rid of them. On a good day they are few enough that you can nibble or shake or swat them off, but once in a while you get unlucky and they make a pilgrimage or something and soon your body is a refugee camp for ticks, fleas, beetles. . .

We've all seen the sores on dogs. The dog hot spots. Hopefully getting to walk a mile in your dog's padded feet will help you realize that the real solution is not to treat hot spots once they appear, but rather to fight a Cold War before it becomes even lukewarm, much less hot. Imagine the joy and relief you would bring your dog if you never put him in the position of having to nibble open sores upon his or her flesh in the first place. And remember, the real suffering for the dog isn't just the sore, it is the long anguish or annoyance which preceded it, and which caused the nibbling in the first place.

Just eliminate all hot spots. Sounds easy. Except vets don't know the cause for sure. They have narrowed it down to a few things though: fleas, bacteria, fungi, ticks, ear infections, allergies, topical irritants, and anal sacculitis. Anal what? Is my dog gay? If you think pronouncing it is painful, try enduring it. Dogs have anal glands that excrete odors which they use to mark their territory. These glands often become inflamed or infected, which often causes dogs to drag their butt around the room to scratch it or otherwise obtain relief. The anal glands can also become filled with puss. How will you know when that happens to your dog? You'll come home and find him trying to hold your revolver to his head. Alas, no opposable digits.

There are superficial dog hot spots which are mild, and deeper types that are like wounds. If you are even asking which your dog has, you should be doing so in the office of a vet. I'm not affiliated with any vet, but am rather motivated by basic decency. Yeah, vets are expensive. If your anal sacculitis was oozing with puss, would you want someone to see if it clears up on its own, or get you to a doctor stat?