How to Prevent Hot Spots in Pets

When their skin feels on fire from itching, your pet may scratch, lick, and chew so much that they create a hot spot. Help your furry pal beat the itch by learning more about these incredibly uncomfortable sores.

What causes hot spots in animals?
Acute moist dermatitis, also known as hot spots or pyotraumatic dermatitis, is a skin condition that causes inflamed sores to appear on a pet’s skin. These blotches frequently appear overnight and can develop swiftly into an excruciating disaster for your pet.

What causes hot spots in pets?
Hot spots are generally caused by skin inflammation from environmental, flea, or food allergies. However, anything that causes your pet to lick, chew, or scratch an area to the point of raw skin can be a culprit. 

Hot spots can be triggered by:

  • Ear infections
  • Skin infections
  • Matted fur
  • Urinary tract infections
  • Anal gland issues

How are animal hot spots treated?
To avoid a severe skin infection, you must act quickly to treat your pet’s hot areas. Your pet has to wear an Elizabethan collar (also known as an e-collar) as soon as you see a little area of inflammation in order to prevent future skin irritation.

As hot spots can be excruciatingly painful to the touch, when your pet comes to our hospital for hot spot treatment, we may sedate them and give them a potent painkiller. We will trim away matted fur to make the area more airy once your pet is at ease. To help the hot spot heal, the wet, matted fur that acts as a breeding ground for infection must be cut off.

We will gently clean the area with an antiseptic rinse to flush away fur and debris, and then apply topical medications to the clean and dry skin to soothe the itch and treat the infection. Further treatment will depend on the hot spot’s underlying cause, and we may recommend allergy treatment, anal gland expression, ear medication, regular grooming, or other therapies.

If you notice an irritated, inflamed area on your pet’s skin, don’t wait. Call our team to schedule an appointment before a minor irritation flares into a large, painful hot spot.