help?? my dog is chewing/licking fur off her legs =(

hey i know theres some sticky about not asking for help with injured dogs on ocau and i do plan to take my dog to the vet but im really worried and just want to get as much advice as possible

so last night i discovered that a large bare patch on my poodle's hind leg. the fur around it is all matted and she keeps licking it. i think she did it to herself. then tonight i found that the same thing happened to her other leg. theres no bleeding or anything - just pink skin that looks slightly moist (probably coz she keeps licking it??) she doesnt seem to be in pain either

anyway here are photos of her legs:



i cant think of any reason why she would be doing this. she is washed regularly with her usual shampoo and conditioner and brushed regularly as well. i also have another dog but he is fine.

does anyone know maybe what could be wrong with my poodle??

 

My pup had a similar issues, turned out to be a bacterial thing. Just take them to the vet and get them to take a sample so they can sort it out

 

Take to vet.

 

I hope you've already gone to a vet...

It's called a "hot spot" and generally won't heal without treatment. The one in your picture looks like it's deep so will probably need antibiotics and an antibacterial cream, and probably an elizabethan collar to stop the dog licking it.

They don't have to have a specific cause, but they get bad because they stay wet and can't dry out. They are VERY itchy. They should take about 1-2 weeks to heal with treatment.

 

ang3l1c, are u a vet?? because u are 100% correct!!
yes i took her to the vet the next day and they gave her the elizabethan collar, shaved all her hair off (apparently it came off like sheep wool in one entire mat lol) and antibiotic injection and neotopic-h cream. she still tries to lick her legs tho
the hot spots have hardened and look like dark scabs now tho so that's a good sign they are healing.
i'm just worried about how to prevent the same thing happening in the future.

 

The flesh areas will scab over and heal as normal, I have found with our pup that the source of the hotspot came from a dermatitis infection that we could only narrow down to a dog bath at our local pet supplies store, hotspot is very contageous and a bath not washed out correctly between "clients" can easily lead to the dog contracting this. Vet confirmed this as well as almost a definative source of the infection. even mentioned the same pet place we had been too.

Known issue in the area. Needless to say, we wash our dog at home again now. The only time we tried them and it cost us a bucket in Vets and seeing the poor thing suffer.

 

"Hot Spots", moist dermatitis, moist pyoderma etc is not a single disease. The causes for it are minimal, but why it occurs in some animals and not others is not always completely understood.

The cause of it - bacterial infection.

Why it occurs is probably multi-factorial, however the most common factor would be underlying skin allergies. skin allergies is also a very, very broad term encompassing a lot of things - but generally dogs that develop "sot spots" have some history of being an itchy type of dog. This includes the obvious scratching dog that loses hair, and also the not so obvious dog that licks/chews their feet and toes or develops ear problems from time to time.

For example a dog I just saw in clinic (5 minutes ago) had an area of moist pyoderma under its left arm. this has been present for a couple of days. The dog has no recent history of being bathed or going swimming. It does however have a history of developing "an itch" over the last 6 months or so.

Treatment is generally successful in the short term and for that infection, but as there is a chronic underlying issue, dogs that have had "hot spots" once will generally develop them again in the future. Prevention for these dogs that develop "hot spots" due to skin allergies is aimed at treatment and management of the allergies.

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Nanciepants, did you mean that ALL of the dogs hair came off in one big mat or just the hair near the infection? If you mean all of the hair over your dog's body, then this may well have contributed to the issue. Matting hair is not conducive to good skin health and with a dog such as a poodle I would recommend frequent grooming - hair should not be allowed to mat up on a dog (or cat).

 

My dog has seasonal allergies and is prone to hot spots, so I know what they look like. I check him every day when I get home from work because I've found if you can get to them early they are MUCH easier to treat.