Dealing With Dog Hot Spots

As you go to make your way through the daily grind, chances are you and your dog are going to see your fair share of dangerous germ sites. These are regions that will just breathe out infection, and particularly for your dog with his or her lower immune system. One way these infections come noticeably about are on dog hot spots.

Dog hot spots are some of the most uncontrollable areas of an infection that create discolored rashes on your dogs skin, creating a day of painful scratching and burning. The worst part is, a day of scratching for a dog is nothing out of the ordinary, not in the least, which means one needs to do more to care for their dog.

Some improvements to a dog's health or coat can come simply, such as an increased number of baths your dog is given, with special shampoos that can help combat pesky carriers of skin infections. Or, even less difficult (and less of a wet mess for your bathroom floor), simply checking your dog's coat. After all, these hot spots will not be as noticeable as a human's given that they live beneath a thick padding of hair. Running your hands through your dog's coat to check for any rashes is a good start to bucking the trend of ignorance towards this popular problem.

Granted, one should also be prudent not to mistake a bout of hot spots for just fleas. So many dogs go untreated for their true dog hot spots because they were being treated for a case of fleas they never had.

With that in mind, it is really quite important to understand what it is your dog hot spots are showing you.

Due to the significance of needing to know, we highly, highly recommend a good veterinarian. After all, who could possibly say a vet has not gone through proper training to know what the rash is? We certainly wouldn't, not when they have invested a great portion of their life's time, energy, and resources to attend medical school!

A vet will be able to tell you right off if you are dealing with fleas, or if the hives, rash, inflammation, what have you, is the result of a larger issue. If it is, they can usually prescribe you a special cream or medication to eradicate the infection and target the dog hot spots. While the cost of prescription drugs is never the most welcomed circumstance, it is often the most effective, and letting the condition go untreated could allow for a bigger medical expense to enter the door by way of your dog's infection.

Lastly, the whole situation is really centered around being attentive to your dog. Dog hot spots may have plenty of ways to surface and attack, but there is only a single way they are going to be defeated and that's by the owner. That being the case, you have no reason to let them go untreated, especially when your dog would do the same for you!