If Your Pet Develops Hot Spots, You Need To Immediately Treat The Wound And Quickly Identify The Underlying Problem.
Hotspots occur when a dog’s natural bacteria infects parts of its own skin. This infection is in most cases due to an underperforming immune system – they often develop very quickly and can be extremely painful and sensitive to touch. It’s also commonly found amongst dogs with thick coats, dirty or moist skin, dogs that suffer from allergies, or a reaction to bug and flea bites.
How to treat a hot spot wound
Start by removing the hair around the wound, it’s crucial not to have an oozing open wound matted with dirty hair, which could cause the bacteria to spread, possibly causing further skin issues. Apply watered down povidone-iodine, a minimum of twice a day to the wound. Povidone-iodine is easily obtainable at any local pharmacy. The goal when treating a nasty hotspot is to keep the wound clean and dry for a few days – it might mean applying the solution every two hours depending on the amount of pus secreting from the wound.
If the wound is showing no signs of healing after your iodine efforts, please do not wait longer than three days before you seek professional help from your vet. However, if the oozing has subsided after a few days, you can apply a topical solution to the wound. We do not recommended using anything that could cause any burning sensation to an open wound such as Tea Tree or apple cider vinegar solutions – stick to ingredients with soothing properties such as raw aloe or Manuka honey. You could even apply a cold soaked chamomile tea bag to soothe the wound.
Repeat the above procedure until the wound shows no sign of further infection and your pet seems to not notice anymore – here is an Aloe Vera recipe to try out.
Discovering the cause
Firstly take a closer look at your pet’s diet, does your pet consume mainly wheat based foods rich in Omega 6? Although an essential part of our pets diets, too much Omega 6 can cause inflammation in the skin. Start off by cutting out any starch/wheat/carbs in your pet’s diet. If that’s not an option, be sure to supplement your pet’s diet with foods rich in Omega 3 such as fish or flax seed oil. Adding Omega 3 to any pet’s diet is highly beneficial and we recommend this to all Raw Love clients!
If you don’t think the cause is due to a reaction to wheat allergies, there are other environmental possibilities to look at, such as reaction to certain pollens and mold. Or, if your pup is a water lover, the water could contain toxins which caused a break out. You will need to monitor your pet’s environment and perhaps change it up a bit to see where the problem could be occurring.
Flea allergy dermatitis is another common cause for a flare in hotspots. Be sure to proactively treat any flea infestation, bearing in mind the best time to do so is after the full moon once all eggs have hatched. Here is an organic Diatoms flea solution recipe you can make use of at home.
Another cause one could consider, is mental or emotional stress. Some pets suffer from separation anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder or just plain old boredom, which results in excessive biting and licking, causing infection in the end. To overcome this we suggest you try changing your routine at home with your pet, giving your dog REGULAR and LARGE doses of LOVE and EXERCISE!!
Sources:
https://www.earthclinic.com/pets/hot_spots.html
https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/04/21/treating-dog-hot-spots.aspx