Ep.31 – The REAL Reason Your Pet’s Skin is Red

SPEAKER_00: 0:08
Hi, Dr. Randy here with my co-host Olivia Saatchi from the University of Arizona Veterinary School.

SPEAKER_01: 0:14
Thank you so much, Dr. Egg. It’s great to be here, you guys.

SPEAKER_00: 0:16
Nice to have you. Today we have a question from Barbara and Tucson about red and inflamed skin.

SPEAKER_01: 0:22
Yeah, and our general question is why is my pet skin red and inflamed?

SPEAKER_00: 0:26
Well, that um is uh does have a myriad of answers to it.

SPEAKER_01: 0:30
I was gonna say there’s a lot to talk about with this question.

SPEAKER_00: 0:33
So if this is a real problem with your dog or cat uh and you’re getting a lot of itching and scratching, maybe some odor, it’s very important to see your veterinarian because there could be some definite underlying problems that are causing this red skin inflammation, especially if it doesn’t go away. These animals will create hot spots, which are ulcerated areas that get infected, they’ll scratch and lick themselves. They often can cause what’s called potodermatitis, which is inflammation of the feet, uh, but it can really get very serious.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03
Yes, because essentially if it if it gets left unchecked, it can develop into other things.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08
Absolutely, absolutely. So you’re veterinarian, what should happen is a very good physical examination. There may be what’s called a skin scraping done. Many times we check for mites because the demodex mite or even uh the scabies mite can cause this. Right. Kind of hard to find the scabies mite sometimes. Uh but also uh there may be um some testing. Uh in my world, I do, as you know, the VDI allergy dermatitis. And often we’ll do that with infection, which allows us to actually culture an area, meaning getting the sensitivity and the bacteria yeast or fungus that’s causing the problem, and then picking the right food out of that uh list that is not allergic, but also doing the animal biome test, which is looking at all of the good and bad bacteria in your dog and cat’s bowel.

SPEAKER_01: 1:58
And it’s really nice to kind of figure out exactly what bacteria is causing the problem, right? Because we don’t want to treat for things that aren’t causing the problem that can lead to other issues. And so kind of a different, different segue here, but what are our main things that can cause that redness and that inflammation?

SPEAKER_00: 2:13
Well, we mentioned allergy or food sensitivity. We mentioned allergy or environmental sensitivity. Right. We mentioned we didn’t mention contact type allergies. Right. Absolutely. So a lot of times animals are sitting on carpeting that’s very high in formaldehyde. There are a lot of cleaning products that are used around the house that can be really toxic to our animals. And let’s not forget kind of glyphosate, which is out there in the environment, Roundup. Terrible problem getting to be much more of an issue in our dogs and cats.

SPEAKER_01: 2:41
Right. And and why do we why do we see that redness? Like, why are those sites becoming inflamed?

SPEAKER_00: 2:46
Okay. So that that is basically the body reacting to something that is really irritating it. So, you know, basically what we call an allergen. Um, whether it’s topical or we talked about food or all these other things, environmental, um, but it’s causing the body to release inflammatory markers, mast cells, cytokines, all these things that will cause that red itching situation. Mast cells are like when you get a bee sting and your arm swells up and it gets all red, those are all mast cells.

SPEAKER_01: 3:14
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:15
And they’re they’re very good at what they do. They’re not so good for our animals if they stick around.

SPEAKER_01: 3:19
Yes. And I’m aware, especially in cats, right? Is that true? Okay, it’s perfect. And so we have all these different uh causes of inflammation, causes of that redness. And so your best advice is A, see the veterinarian so they can kind of decipher what’s going on and then treat that accordingly.

SPEAKER_00: 3:35
Absolutely. Get a diagnosis, try to figure out what the root cause is. Again, we always go back to foundational medicine in my world. Um, if they just put the animal on an anti-inflammatory and an antibiotic, as we’ve talked about before, that can really change the gut flora or all the microbiome. We really want to try to avoid that if we can help it.

SPEAKER_01: 3:55
And then my last question for you is if that inflammation is is left untreated, we can get chronic inflammation.

SPEAKER_00: 4:01
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 4:02
And and please continue. Well, I’m just curious because I know chronic inflammation comes with its own host of problems. Right. So can you touch on that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00: 4:10
Yeah. So when we get into the chronic inflammation phase, now we really have to attack this internally uh with foundational medicine. Um sometimes we have to use a product like Cytopoint, which will stop the itching and scratching temporarily. But you didn’t hear me say prednisone.

SPEAKER_01: 4:27
Right.

SPEAKER_00: 4:27
Um you didn’t hear me say antihistamines if we can help it. Um we certainly didn’t hear me say antibiotics. Um and you know, we would never hear that from the Well, you know, it’s it’s not that I don’t use them, it’s just I try not to. Yeah. But when we get into the chronic situation, it’s a little bit more of an uphill battle to get that under control, but very doable.

SPEAKER_01: 4:45
Okay, perfect. And so that’s why it’s important, if you notice those signs, to go consult your veterinarian. Absolutely quite fast. Absolutely. Okay, yeah. Well, perfect. Thank you for that wonderful thorough explanation. Yeah. Thank you guys for joining us. You can find both of us on social media for Dr. Randy. We have him on Instagram. You can follow him at Dr. Randy Petbet. He’s also on YouTube, so you should go subscribe, like his videos. That’s also at Dr. Randy Petbet. For myself, I’m on Instagram at at Dr. Sachi, S-A-C-C-I. Um, and thank you guys for joining us trying to get your pets on a better, healthier track.

SPEAKER_00: 5:17
And please share this with your pet friends uh who have uh who are pet guardians because this information is priceless. The more we get it out, the better we’re gonna do to educate all of the people out there for wellness, longevity, and health span. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 5:30
Thank you guys.

SPEAKER_00: 5:31
Thank you.