Most hot spots start the same way – a hot Saturday, a swim at the dog park, a coat that never quite dried and a dog who can’t stop licking one spot above the hock. By Sunday night the patch is the size of a 50-cent piece, weeping and smelling faintly of warm copper. We see this pattern through every Australian summer, especially in the humidity belt north of Brisbane.
A hot spot is an acute patch of bacterial skin infection triggered by trapped moisture and scratching. Clip the fur, clean with a chlorhexidine solution, keep it dry and stop the licking, and most clear within 7 to 10 days. See a vet if the patch is larger than a 50-cent coin, hot to touch, smelly or spreading.
What hot spots actually are (and why they flare so fast)
Hot spots (clinical name ‘pyotraumatic dermatitis’ or acute moist dermatitis) are a localised bacterial skin infection. The trigger is almost always a small irritant – a flea bite, an allergy flare, a grass seed, a damp patch under a collar – that the dog licks or scratches until the skin barrier breaks. Staphylococcus bacteria already on the coat move in, and the patch goes from itchy to weeping inside hours.
Three things make Australian dogs prone. Heat and humidity hold moisture in the coat. Beach and creek swims add salt or pond bacteria. And our long warm season keeps fleas active most of the year. Inflammatory skin conditions are a top reason dogs present to AU clinics each year. Good coat care removes two of those three triggers before they get going.
How to spot one before it spreads
A fresh hot spot looks like a coin-sized circle of bright red, damp-looking skin, usually under matted or wet fur. The hair around it sticks together in clumps. Press a clean tissue to it and the tissue comes away yellow or pink. The skin feels warmer than the patch next to it.
Behaviour gives it away earlier than your eyes do. A dog who keeps twisting back to lick the same hip, shoulder or behind-the-ear spot is the first sign. Persistent scratching in one area, sudden grumpiness when touched there, or a faint sour smell on the coat – act on any of those within a day, not three.
Common spots: behind the ears (very common in Cavoodles and Groodles with thick ear feathers), the cheek under a damp collar, the lower flank, the rump above the tail and the inside of a thigh after a swim.
Treating a hot spot at home
Most early hot spots clear without a vet visit, provided you act within 24 to 48 hours and the patch is smaller than a 50-cent coin. If it’s bigger, hot or your dog flinches at touch, skip to the vet section. Otherwise:
Trim the fur around the patch with blunt-tip scissors or a pair of clippers (5 minutes). Cut back to about 1cm of clean skin all the way around. This is the bit most owners skip, and it’s the single biggest reason hot spots stay wet – trapped fur keeps the patch damp. Hold the skin taut and clip away from the wound, never into it.
Clean the area with a 2% chlorhexidine solution (3 to 5 minutes). Pet Circle, Petbarn and most AU vets stock it. Dilute as per the label, soak a clean cloth or cotton pad and dab – don’t rub. Saline works too if chlorhexidine isn’t to hand. Never use hydrogen peroxide on open skin and never use Dettol, which is toxic to dogs.
Pat it dry, then leave it open to the air (2 minutes). Air contact is what shifts a hot spot from weeping to healing. A wet bandage makes it worse. If the patch sits under a collar or chest strap, swap to a temporary alternative for a week.
Stop the licking. A soft Elizabethan collar, an inflatable donut or a light recovery shirt over the area all work. Dogs who keep licking can re-infect a healing patch in under an hour, which is why this step matters more than any topical you apply.
Repeat the clean-and-dry routine twice a day for 5 to 7 days. By day three the patch should look drier and smaller. By day seven it should be a dry scab. If it isn’t, book a vet.
Where grooming earns its keep
A weekly grooming routine prevents far more hot spots than any topical fixes. The habits that matter most, in order of impact:
Brush before the bath, not after. Brushing a wet coat sets the mats deeper and traps water against the skin.
Dry to the skin, not just the coat. A microfibre towel for short coats, a low-heat dryer (warm, never hot) for double and curly. We’ve seen Groodle hot spots show up 48 hours after a ‘finished’ bath because the undercoat was still damp.
Check the ears weekly. Floppy-eared breeds, ear feathers and post-swim moisture are a hot-spot pipeline. A clean dog-safe ear wipe and a gentle dry are usually enough.
Keep flea prevention year-round, not just summer. Most AU climates carry fleas through autumn and into winter, and a single flea bite under a thick coat can start a hot spot in a sensitive dog.
If you use a groomer, ask for a PIAA-accredited salon or mobile service – accredited groomers are trained to flag early skin issues, not bath over them.
The double-coat shaving trap
Every Australian summer brings the same well-meaning mistake – owners ask the groomer to shave their husky, golden retriever or Maltese Shih Tzu mix because the dog ‘looks hot’. Shaving a double-coated dog doesn’t cool them down. It removes the insulating layer that regulates body temperature, exposes pale skin to UV burn and makes hot spots far more likely as the regrowing undercoat traps sweat against irritated skin. The right move on a double coat is a deshedding bath plus a thorough undercoat rake, not a clipper run.
Common mistakes we see every summer
Putting cream on without clipping the fur first. The cream sits on the hair, not the skin, and the patch stays wet underneath.
Using human antiseptic. Savlon, Dettol and tea tree oil are all variously irritating or toxic to dogs. Chlorhexidine or saline only.
Bandaging the patch. A damp dressing turns a 7-day heal into a 3-week one.
Letting the dog keep swimming. Pond and salt water on broken skin extends the infection.
Waiting it out for a week. Hot spots that don’t visibly improve by day three rarely fix themselves – they spread.
When it stops being a grooming job and starts being a vet visit
Book a vet, not a groomer, if any of these are true:
The patch is bigger than a 50-cent coin or there are two or more.
The skin is hot to touch or your dog flinches and growls when you go near it.
It smells strongly sour or yeasty, or pus is visible.
It’s near the eye, inside the ear canal or in the groin or armpit folds.
Your dog has had hot spots three or more times in a year – there’s usually an underlying allergy, flea or atopy issue that needs working up.
Most AU vets will trim and clean the area in-clinic, send you home with a chlorhexidine wash and a short course of topical or oral antibiotics, then add a steroid only when itch is severe. Clinical guidance on pyotraumatic dermatitis backs this stepped approach. A standard consult plus topicals usually runs $120 to $220 in 2026.
Australian climate notes that change the playbook
Humidity is the single biggest AU-specific risk factor. North of Brisbane, along the QLD coast and in the NT, we see hot spots through more months of the year than southern clinics report. The AVA flags inflammatory skin disease as a leading reason for vet visits across Australia. Dogs in humid zones benefit from a shorter clipped length over summer (without shaving double coats) and post-walk towel-downs after dewy mornings.
Beach dogs are a separate case. Salt water dries the coat fast, but sand caught against the skin acts like sandpaper under a wet Cavoodle coat. Rinse with cool fresh water at the tap, towel dry, then comb through. Spring is the other danger window – coat blow on double-coated breeds traps loose undercoat against the skin and holds moisture.
Hot spots on dogs FAQ
What causes hot spots on dogs?
An irritant breaks the skin barrier, the dog licks or scratches it, and bacteria already on the coat take hold. The most common triggers in AU dogs are flea bites, environmental allergies, trapped moisture after a swim and matted fur over thick ear bases. Hot weather and humidity speed the whole sequence up.
Will a hot spot heal on its own?
Sometimes a very small, dry patch resolves once the trigger is removed. Most don’t. The licking-and-bacteria loop is self-reinforcing, so without trimming the fur, cleaning the skin and stopping the licking, the patch usually spreads before it shrinks.
How long does a hot spot take to clear up?
With early home treatment, 5 to 7 days for visible drying and 10 to 14 days for full hair regrowth. Vet-treated cases on antibiotics follow a similar curve. If you’re not seeing clear improvement by day three of home care, escalate.
Can I use human antiseptic on a dog’s hot spot?
No. Dettol contains phenols that are toxic to dogs. Savlon and tea tree oil are skin-irritant. Hydrogen peroxide damages healing tissue. Stick to a dilute 2% chlorhexidine solution, sterile saline or a vet-prescribed wash.
Brush before the bath, dry to the skin every time and act on a single lick-spot the same day – and most Australian dogs will go through summer without ever needing the e-collar.
Australian Veterinary Association – https://www.ava.com.au/library-resources/other-resources/skin-disease/ – AVA position on inflammatory skin disease and prevention in Australian dogs.
VCA Animal Hospitals – https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/hot-spots-in-dogs – Clinical overview of pyotraumatic dermatitis and Staphylococcus involvement.
Pet Industry Association of Australia (PIAA) – https://www.piaa.net.au/ – Groomer accreditation standards used to flag early skin conditions in-salon.