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Dog Health
DBT highly recommends the The Ultimate Guide to Dog Health! ebook when learning to look after your dog or pet.
Dog Hot Spot Symptoms 1. Small soars and scabbed part on the dog’s body. 2. Scabs occur normally on feet, around the anus, and ear areas. 3. Matted surrounding hair. 4. Bald spots around where the scabs occur.
What Causes Dog Hot Spots?
The cause of hot spots or exudative pyotraumatic dermatitis as it is also known is due to excessive licking or scratching which eventually breaks the skin of the dog normally because of allergies or similar irritating conditions. This form of ‘wet eczema’ can be easily dealt with by stopping the dog from itching the affected area until it has healed, but as we cannot tell the dog to stop the licking and itching it becomes more difficult and methods must be used to prevent this action. Sometimes curing the underlying allergy or other condition is sufficient enough to make the dog stop itching but often a cream will be needed also.
What Your Vet May Say or Do
On the vet inspecting the dog in question it will be obvious in most cases that the dog has been scratching the effected part due to another condition. The first step then will be to use cortisone tablets or cream to stop the itching and nagging sensation the dog is experiencing. Then the vet may inspect further the parts of the dog’s body that are effected such as inside the ear or around the anus to look for non-allergic related conditions. If none of these conditions are found then an allergy may be the only other option. This comes with yet more problems though; the process of determining the allergic substance may be expensive, time consuming, and may not amount to any specific cause in the end. This testing is done by either blood tests, tests done by a professional kinesiologist, or through diluting different substances with water and injecting small amounts into the skin to view if there is any swelling and noting down how much. This is slightly uncomfortable for the dog but not as bad as the allergy symptoms, although there isn’t always good results using this method after noting down different effects of substances a conclusion may become visible. Note however that from previous experience and professional tests done, if the offending cause is dust or dust mites in the home there is nothing that can be done except using medication to ease the symptoms.
Other Possible Conditions
Dog Itching and Scratching
Dog Bacterial Skin Infections
Dog Allergies – Itchy Ears
Dog Allergies – Itchy Feet and Itchy Bottom
Dog Flea Allergy
Dog Fleas Information
Dog Food Allergies – Skin Allergies
Dog Hypothyroidism (under active thyroid glands)
Dog Skin Mites
Dog Fungal Skin Infections
Dog Yeast Infection 
