HotSpots:

HOTSPOTS

A dog or cat can get an itchy place and scratch it "raw"
Some "juice" starts oozing through the damaged skin.
It (plasma) sticks all the hair together. And the dog has to lick it constantly to keep the smell from attracting predators.
These can get BIG in a very short period of time.
They can't heal while the dog is licking it. They just get worse.

#FITTING A CONE COLLAR (Illustrated)

Often, shaving away the hair makes sense so you can clean a hotspot, and so that hair doesn't stick in the crusted plasma.
Other times you can treat THROUGH the hair for small hot spots.

We also put these dogs on antibiotics. When they have BIG spots, or MANY spots it's recommended.
But antibiotics can create eventual drug-dependency by killing GOOD germs with the bad ones.
And they modify intestinal germs and those impacts can be profound.
So we TRY to treat without 'systemic' antibiotics.
Sometimes you 'get away with it'

The fastest and best treatment for a hotspot is a systemic steroid.
Lots of young vets won't use a steroid in a dog even if it means the pet will die. For example (real life) delayed-type hyper-sensitivty reactions misdiagnosed because they were two weeks after immunization and couldn't possibly be related to shots. (The dog died of eventual Auto Immune Meningitis as confirmed by autopsy)
(Delayed-type hypersensitivity reactions for example.)
I'll use a short acting steroid to get these dogs 'over the hump'.

Control of chewing and fleas is absolutely paramount.

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