Actually, the only dog I ever owned who had problems with hotspots was a yellow. How about that. It will be interesting to see what others say on this thread.
And what is it about yellows...their coat smells soooo different than the choc and blacks. Am I crazy, or am I the only one that notices this? My family is the only one who knows what I mean. Its weird, too, that I seem more 'sensative' to the smell of the yellows, and their hair makes my throat itch. Never had that with the blacks or chocolates. Or maybe I'm just getting old and have been sniffing too much bag balm. LOL!
We have blacks and yellows and I find that the heavier the coat - the worse the hot spots - regardless of the color. We have more blacks than yellows and the blacks have oilier coats, I think. The yellows seems to dry faster and when they do get a hot spot, it is easier to treat and heals faster. Someone told me that the higher the fat content in the food - the higher the rate of hot spots. Our food is about 18% fat.
We have a pool and the dogs swim all Summer. They don't seem to get hot spots from the pool water, but playing in the hose or dunking in the water buckets too much brings on the hot spots.
My thickest coated dogs around the neck are the ones, once in a great while that might get a hot spot. But the yellows do have very delicate skin.
Even looks thin skinned. No hot spots there.
I agree with Blonde and others about yellows. I too, liken them to people with fair skin, (like me) and find them more sensitive. Then there's the issue of "what you see is what you get" because even with a heavy yellow coat, you see things on a yellow that wouldn't be noticeable on a chocolate or a black.
I do believe there is some truth to the heavier coated labradors being more susceptible to getting hot spots, esp when it is humid outside.
Ironically, our yellow girls never get hot spots but then again, they are not as heavy coated. Though, our chocolate girls are heavy coated and never had a hot spot in almost 2 years of raising them.
Our now deceased yellow girl used to get hot spots all the time but she did have environmental allergies all her life.
A dog who gets their fair share of hot spots during the year more than likely has some allergies involved, combined with living in a very humid climate and heavy coat.
Interesting, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Many of you mentioned heavy coats and now that I think about it, that issue combined with the fairer skin could well be factor.
My dogs are all related so maybe it is an allergic response, but I only get serious hot spots after applying frontline. I switched to comfortis and have had no problems.
