Dermatitis in dogs: what causes hot spots on dogs?
Dermatitis in dogs: What are hot spots on dogs?
A hot spot is a skin infection with a very quick rate of advancement. It is pretty common in dogs and relatively rare in cats. This kind of lesion appears suddenly, in a matter of hours, and it's usually secondary to the onset of a severe itch: so much so that dogs scratch, bite, rub themselves to the point of injuring themselves. The resulting lesions are wet, red and can be located anywhere, though it's more common on the shoulders, back and thighs.
What causes dermatitis in dogs?
These lesions, often terrible, develop within hours on the skin of back and thighs. The poor animal tries spasmodically to scratch and bite himself with his paws or mouth, inflicting to himself bleeding wounds. These lesions are usually attributed to the sudden development of bacteria on the skin, but it is not so: bacterial overgrowth is a consequence, not the trigger, because it's secondary to the sudden inflammation of the area.
Dermatitis in dogs: what's the cause of inflammation?
We investigated what may be the culprit, in order to find a way to prevent relapses. The main suspects are oxytetracycline residues: this is a broad spectrum antibiotic that can become surprisingly toxic when its residues bind themselves to bone tissue, something that happens especially in chickens (though not only in them) and that we proved scientifically in an in vitro study. In the specific case of hot spots on dogs, they appear in a few hours after the dog has eaten bones (raw or packaged) or leftovers from a barbecue: this is why this reaction happens easily on a Saturday or Sunday, days when people has the time to have some barbecue. Of course, dogs are safe if meat doesn’t contain oxytetracycline. Bone, in itself, may cause other kinds of problems, such as constipation, puncture wounds, or fecal impactions. It can also cause many other reactions, such as diarrhea, itching on the neck and back, abundant tearing, dandruff, paw licking, flatulence, shaking of the ear and vomit.
Foods you should never feed your dog
All pet food realized with raw ingredients derived from industrial farming - especially chicken, the most frequent culprit - can convey these toxic residues: kibbles then, but also wet food (be it packaged in pouches, cans or trays) and treats, whose taste is sometimes enhanced with the use of appetizers. As we already said above, eating these contaminated foods will give dogs many reactions in a matter of hours. "Contaminated" chicken is so common that we've been mistakenly induced to think that our pets have become intolerant to it en masse, but it's easy to verify how most dogs that are diagnosed an allergy to chicken meat are - in reality - just reacting to the presence of this toxic.
Dermatitis and hot spots on dogs: treatment
There is only one solution for dermatitis: don’t give to your dog a bone coming from intensive farming and feed him FORZA10 Dermo Active: you will see that your dog's hair will become beautiful and you won't have to deal with tears, itching and bad looking stools.
Forza10 Founder and Head of SANYpet’s Research and Development Department Veterinary surgeon and international expert in food-borne diseases
