hot spot on back - Page 1

today i was grooming my 14 month old, and i found brown crust on his back above the base of his tail right over his hips.

i took a de-tangling comb to pull it out, and under i found a red spot which kind of bled, but only like an almost healed scap bleeds.

Ben did not seem to care about it, he didnt show any pain or anything, even after his bath he has not gone to bite that spot. i have seen him in the past itch back there, but never excessivly. it has been a couple of months since his last bath, so i didnt notice if it was there before or not.

he does not have fleas, and im just wondering if it should cause concern. im mostly wondering what the crust was... why would it build up like that? i thought it was poop in his fur, until i saw the blood under. it could not be seen at all unles you parted his fur and looked directly at his skin in that one spot.

am i a horrible person for waiting so long to give a bath? i read that once or twice a year was a good rule to avoid drying their skin. he has had about 4 total groomings since i got him... so i went a bit more than the suggested twice a year.

how long should i wait for it to heal before i see a vet?

i am having a hard time trusting vets in my area - one said my shar-pei had a stomach ache and should be fine, then the next morning she died from kidney problems.

i changed vets and then the new vet went out of business.

any over the counter products for a similar condition in your dogs that you would recomend?

does this sound like a food allergy? how could an allergy cause bleeding?

could it be from the groomer brushing too hard last time with one of those wire brushes?

i stoped takeing him to the groomer this time because last time they told me i could pick him up in an hour,then i had to wait 3 hours

my male had a hot spot I get him groomes every 8-9weeks because  he is in the house. One time when the groomer went to take him hw winned and then after he said he had a sore spot on his back. I tried to look and he really wouldn't let me he would whinned like it hurt  and then shake it was between his should blades and when I could see it looked kinda of ozing gooey yellowish took him to the vet probably from when I put his frontline on it was all kinda of in one spot not spread out and all that moisture created the bacteria.

Althought I can't remember I believe he gave me a antibiotic I know I didn't put anything on it directly the so it was either pills that cleared it up or maybe when I took him in it was drying up and we just left it? he has never had another one and now when I put frontline on I do it in a line.

Sorry can't be better help

and my 2 outside dogsget a bath twice a year so in my opion it is just what works for you but I have heard you don't want to give a bath too close together like every other week would dry them out

We never could figure out how our girl ended up with hot spots but we learned to watch for her sniffing or lightly licking an area and would always find what you describe.  We bathed her twice a year, she was an indoor dog with no known allergies.  I can't help but wonder if we may have scratched her from time to time when brushing her.  If you are not showing your dog in the ring and can keep him from licking the best thing we found for a hot spot was to shave area over the spot very closely.  It needs to dry out.  Looks bad for a short time but they heal up really fast this way and the hair fills in quickly.    Hope this helps.

Deb

Fortunately i dont have a lot of probs with my dogs,on occasion they have had a hot spot,if it looks sore i have always used zinc and castor oil or baby nappy rash cream,it has never failed me. 

thanks guys.

we use Betagen  or Gentocin spray on Hot spot, It works really well,I even use it on cuts and scrapes that the kids get.  Also another thing to check is their Anal glands, they tend to chew at the base of the tail if their anal glands get impacted or infected. Just a thought

An allergy won't actually cause the bleeding - the licking and biting to the area in question is what causes the bleeding.  Unfortunately, I've battled hot spots on my female for several years now to no avail.  It's very frustrating dealing with these.  Just a little irritation and a small amount of licking can cause a mess.   I treat the area topically with Genesis spray to "quiet" the irritation.  There have been some great recommendations from others in previous posts on the board if you search for "hot spots".

Has anyone been told to remove the scabbed/crusty area?  I'm not very medically adept but for lack of  better words - my vet told me it was to let the new skin breath underneath and come in.  Just curious because these things can get quite gooey and yellow before they scab over.

Hi - my old CH gets hot spots occassionally.   I mix 1/3 water, 1/3 baby oil (cheapest kind) and 1/3 listerine (the original gold one) in a spray bottle.   Shake it and spray as soon as you see a spot starting.   Usually works here.

I used Bactine spray on the one my old dog just had, and it seemed to worked really fast to start healing it up.   Was a gross one too, and he's never had them before.  Thick green goop when I tugged on this clumpy piece of hair.. thought he had just gotten something stuck in his coat.  But I don't have tons of experience to compare how well it worked compared to something else.

Hello,

Where are you located at, meaning climate wise and how is the weather? It is getting wintertime and the air gets cold and dry, the warm air in the house is very dry,too. I have skinproblems then so do my dogs and they itch a bit more.

In general i think washing a dog is not necessary unless some medical issue requires it. I often just hose my dogs down, takes care of most of it. And this just happens occationally, i may actually have to wash my dogs maybe 1-2 times a year... if they didn't get into anything stinky....

Hot spot treatment is nice, but if you don't know the cause it is not so good. What you see might not be the classical hot spot, you may want to look for maybe pluged oilglands in the skin, might start like that and then there might be a buble under the skin, that fills with puss.

The causes can be multiple things, wrong food, that causes the skin to be irritated, or a bugbite, that itched and didn't get vented enough when the dog licked it or nibbled on it. and just turned into a moist excema. If this is a one time thing i wouldn't worry too much about it. I treat things of this kind and other minor things with calendula tincture. that dries it and helps the skin to heal. I get the scab off with lye soap, best thing and good for the skin.

I had a bad case of Hotspots a couple of years ago, and i could directly link it to the food i was feeding. I had time issues, and went from raw back to a kibble and then it started and was rather bad, handsized spot on the backleg and it didn't seem to get better, then i remebered hthat skin problems are often linked to food and went back to raw and the hotspots vanished and haven't returned since...

I would suggest- if this is reoccuring to find the cause and eliminate it. Try food changes, reduce bathing (leaves skin dry and without needed oils) Increase Omega fatty acids, that helps the skin,too. Instead of bathing try brushing more, helps the blood circulation in the skin.

Other than that, get the crust off, with a mild washing solution (like lyesoap) and put a drying liquid on it, whatever you prefer, there are some good suggestions allready up there, but I would suggest don't use oils or creams, that plugs the pores and doesn't let the skin breath and may support this way the spreading of the hotspot.

Good luck!