Hot Spots

Champ had a hot spot on his leg that was so bad the vet had briefly mentioned amputation if we couldn't get him to leave it alone. A guy at church owns a pharmaceutical business and had me try one of their products. After two careless applications, he never went back to the spot. I will look at the name of it when I get home and try to find out how to get a hold of some for you.

So far he hasn't messed with it. I kept an eye on him last night and he was crashed out this morning when I left. Thanks--

What you're doing is fine. Hoover gets one about once a year, around this time because of his allergies. We have an antihistamine from the vet that he's on now hoping to prevent one. If T's real itchy, you can give him a Benedryl. Keep an eye on it, it could get infected, then you'll need an antibiotic. I have never heard of amputaion because of a hot spot.

I've put hydrocortisone cream on Deuce before when he was itching himself bald. It worked.

Sulfodene(sp?) works great for it. It's kind of stinky and oily but works wonders. I always keep some on hand for such problems. You can buy it just about anywhere-I get it at Walmart in the dog section. It's yellow and stinky but is amazing. They will quit scratching and it heals it up pretty quickly. I used to use it on Rocky when he would get itchy spots and start losing his hair from scratching. Always worked and it's cheap and easy to get.

I hadn't either. They also mentioned acupuncture (which was of course a better alternative, but really?)! It was a spot on his leg that he would not leave alone and it kept getting infected. We'd wrap it, medicate it, put the medi-collar around his head and he still would get everything off of it and lick it until it was raw and infected. This went on for over a year. The stuff our friend gave us looked like hydrogen peroxide, but said they came up with it in it WWII to heal wounds that would be otherwise amputated. In hindsight, in our case (which I'm sure is rare), he was very sick and we didn't know it, so he didn't know what else to do but lick. But the ointment our friend gave us worked. The vet had him on antibiotics for three months, which seemed too long to me. This stuff worked in two days.

Acupuncture rocks! I've used it with two of my dogs and the effects have been almost immediate. It's much cheaper than I ever would have imagined and has worked great. We now take all our Doxies to Dr Baker in Bargersville in case we run into more back problems with their long low bodies. I never would have believed it could work as well as it did but it was amazing. I'm glad you were able to fix him up with that medicine but don't count out acupuncture as a possible treatment. I agree that sounds like a long time for antibiotics.

I was certainly more willing to try the acupuncture than the amputation! :) I admit, though, it did sound odd. I'll remember your recommendation if we ever need it, though. BTW, the product was Di-Dak-Sol and it is a sodium hypochlorite.