Reading The Tea Leaf

Posted By Jean on February 4, 2009

Our golden retriever, Cody, is prone to hotspots. He gets them about 3 – 4 times a year. They seem to always come up on the sides of his neck. When they appear, they can spread rapidly causing him major irritation and pain. They weep, usually an oozing, bloody liquid. The last time the veterinarian cost was about $250 which included a $75 fur trimming fee, to shave the affected area. I decided to do a little research and saw that there was some recommendations for putting black tea on the infected area. Now that I thought was interesting, so I made up a cup of very strong black tea, about 2 heaping tablespoons of black tea, steeped it for about 2 minutes, allowed it to cool to the touch and sprayed it on the hot spot. I sprayed it twice the first day and by the second day I noticed the area seemed to be drying up and less weeping. By the third day it had gotten smaller and seemed to be much better and he seemed less agitated with touch. Day four it was hardly visible.

What is it in tea that makes this possible? According to Wikipedia “Tannins not only heal burns and stop bleeding, but they also stop infection while they continue to heal the wound internally. The ability of tannins to form a protective layer over the exposed tissue keeps the wound from being infected even more”. So keep a small supply readily available in your medicine cabinet for skin irritations, insect bites, burns or rashes. It certainly has made a remarkable difference for Cody.

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