Hello everyone, Out 2 and a half year old yellow lab gets hot spots every summer . It typically is when it's really hot. We have a pool which he loves to swim . We try our best to dry him when he swim. He also loves to roll in the dirt sometimes after swimming . So we have started summer in the East coast . It had not been that hot at all and he started 2 spots this week on his back and by his tail . He eats limited ingredient venison and sweet potato food - because when it all started last year the vet thought maybe allergies . Any suggestions or help? Thanks!
Welcome to the forum Hot spots need vet attention because dogs chew at them obsessively and they can get out of hand so quickly. They can become infected and also large in size. Our Labrador Obi got hot spots for the first time last summer (Australia) as it was exceptionally humid. He created the hot spots so quickly. He needed antibiotic cream and steroid/antihistamine tablets. He had to wear a cone on his head till he healed up. And it was really, really important that we prevented him from swimming. Any swimming made him hugely itchy and started off the chewing again. We just had to harden our hearts and keep him out of the water till summer had well and truly ended. I think you will need to do the same with your boy - keep him out of the water at all costs, no matter how much he loves swimming. And take him to the vet ASAP.
My boy also suffers from hot-spots, usually in the ruff of skin round his neck. When they flare up we have to use antibiotic / steroid cream (fusiderm) from the vet, which I don't like, but it does seem to work. The first time I didn't notice it until it was out of hand - it flared up soooooo quickly - and the poor boy was in a cone for several days and truly miserable. Since then I check him daily for any sign of trouble and try to jump on it immediately. My best advice would be that I have found that adding salmon oil to his food has drastically reduced the number of flare-ups that we get, and the severity too. I'd strongly recommend trying it if you don't already (but use a high quality brand).It also makes his coat amazingly soft, deep and huggable! Welcome to the forum, and let us know how you get on...
I’d recommend bathing the spot in a 10% povidone iodine solution. It also smells nice! Whenever my boy smells yeasty, I use this and it kills any microbes that can fester and cause more problems. You need to keep on top of it, before the hotspot occurs. But you can use it on the hotspot, too. Bactroban (antibiotic gel) plus steroid cream do work very quickly though. I do let my boy swim cos he gets very hot. I dry him after with a towel. I generally use the povidone iodine solution before a walk so that it can dry, otherwise it might stain our fabrics (sofa, etc). I also use Apple cider vinegar - the acid kills microbes. Careful though, it can sting raw skin.
Oh, another thing - diet. Yeast loves sugars. So you should try to keep the carbs low in his diet. Sweet potato is high in carbs.
