HOT SPOTS IN DOGS:
A LESSON IN GREEK, AND UDDER BALM
Treasured readers, it’s time again to remind everyone of a problem that I start to see every year about this time: the problem of hotspots. And by ‘hotspots’, I’m not referring to the chaotic office hours at my vet clinic on a Monday afternoon following a long holiday weekend, but rather, I’m talking about a really gross-looking skin disease in dogs known by the medical term, Pyotraumatic dermatitis.
The ‘pyo’ part of the word pyotraumatic is derived from the Greek word pyon which simply means pus. (Now there’s a trivia question you can share with you loved ones on some cold upstate New York winter’s evening.) The ‘traumatic’ part of the term refers to a medical condition caused by a wound or injury. Dermatitis simply means any condition that affects the skin. And so to put it into plain terms, pyotraumatic dermatitis is nothing more than a disease in which the skin starts to secrete a nasty-looking pus as the result of a constant trauma (the dog's licking, licking, licking) being applied to it.
Hotspots can occur in all breeds of dogs, but in my practice, I see it almost exclusively in large breed dogs, especially the golden retriever. What happens with hotspot disease is that a large, usually round, wet, pus and serum-filled wound, suddenly appears on your dog’s cheek, neck, forehead, tail head, or thigh. These nasty looking wounds can materialize quickly in a matter of a couple hours or during an overnight.
The cause of pyotraumatic dermatitis is not well understood. (Don't you just hate it when I say that?) The way the progression of the disease occurs, is as follows. First, there is an underlying problem that happens around the head or back-end of the dog that makes him starts to lick or chew that particular area of the body. When hotspots occur on the dog’s cheek, it often means she has an infection in her ear or a painful tooth. When they occur around the thighs and tail head, it’s usually because of either fleas or swollen anal glands. And sometimes, especially in Goldens, there is no obvious reason.
Anyway, for whatever reason, the dog starts to lick and work at these areas of discomfort. When this happens to excess, the skin in the area that’s being licked and chewed and traumatized starts to secrete serum and pus. If this goes on long enough, something clicks in the doggie’s little mind that says, “Hum, this stuff tastes pretty good!” It is at this point, that regardless of whatever the underlying cause may have been, the dog now starts to obsessively work at these wounds because they enjoy it!!! This is what makes hotspots so hard to treat.
For simple cases, the treatment for hotspots in my practice consists of three parts. The first is that I treat the underlying initial cause; I treat the ears, empty out the anal glands, treat the fleas, etc. Then I give a cortisone shot which calms the inflammation caused by the dog’s constant licking. Lastly, I have the owners spray on a compound that taste awful. In the complicated cases where a dog is just hopelessly obsessed with its urge to lick, sometimes I’ll have to tranquilize him for a few days or apply an Elizabethan collar.
In closing, no discussion of hotspots would be complete without me commenting on the evils of the pointless use of udder balm. It seems like every second dog that comes into my clinic for the treatment of hotspots has been home-doctored with udder balm. (For those who don’t know, udder balm is a thick, sticky, lanolin-based, goop that was created to provide blessed relief to dried and chapped and sun-burnt milkcow udders.) There are two reasons why udder balm is the worst medicine one could ever put on a dog’s hotspot. First, hotspots are a moist, wet, and slimy lesion; udder balm, remember, is a moisturizer. Hotspots don’t need more moisturizing, they need drying agents. Secondly, slathering up a hotspot with udder balm, is like putting whipped-cream onto a hot fudge sundae; it just makes the wound taste even better to the dog, making him want to lick it more.
Ummm, yummy!!!!
Thanks again.
Copyright 2005 by Richard Orzeck, DVM. The information in this article is based upon the author’s personal experiences, his opinions, and his best interpretation of the data at the time of writing. It is not intended to render veterinary advice or service. Specific needs and questions concerning your pet’s health should always, always, always, be addressed by his or her best friend, their local veterinarian.