Now Phoebe has a hot spot.

She has been itching and licking more than usual for over a week. I was guessing it was a mange flare up, which still may be the case. I planned on setting up a visit to the vet for another skin scraping to check the status of the crummy mites, but have not made it a high priority. Now it is.

Between the mange and the papilloma, I am always checking for skin issues, and noticed this spot tonight.

I did a quick search to get a bit more info, and what a surprise (sarcasm), I found an article on Healthy pets that says:

“Hot spots are created when your dog’s natural bacteria overpopulates parts of his skin. When an infection arises from a dog’s own bacteria, there is almost a root cause. Hot spots often occur in dogs with underperforming immune systems.”

Suppressed immune system strikes again.

According to the same article, these little hot spots can be non existent in the morning and come to life by evening. That explains why it appeared out of the blue tonight.

What next?