[Dailydrool] Hot Spots

[Kay, Nancy K *HS]

Last week we went on a long-weekend trip to the Chesapeake Bay to visit some friends. We had planned to board Frank and Tina at the usual kennel, and drop them off there on Thursday morning. Frank had been working on a hot spot on the top of his front-right paw, and of course, by Thursday morning he'd licked it so raw that it was too sore to stand on! We had been vigilantly putting on Gold Bond Powder, Cortisone cream, and any other anti-itch stuff we could find, doping him up with Benadryl, all of which obviously didn't work. We had also dabbed some Blue Power ear stuff on it, but that really stung and made him yelp and limp, so we stopped.

So, we took him to the vet who thankfully worked us in, and they gave him an antibiotic and some Rimadyl for pain, and said he'd be fine at the kennel for the weekend. We picked F+T up on Monday, and he indeed was fine, the thing was practically gone. A couple of days later, though, it was back with a vengeance. That leads us to believe there's something in our yard that he's allergic to, but there's no telling what! Or he was just really distracted with all the activity at the kennel, and that overcame his obsessive-compulsive lick lick lick lick behavior.

A friend at work said that he'd used Bitter Apple on his ol' dog's hot spot, and it had cleared up since the yucky taste kept him from licking the spot. So we tried that, and it's working - YAY! I didn't want to give Frankie more meds, he doesn't tolerate prednisone well, and the dreaded e-collar is just that -- dreaded!

Our Virginia weather has been really hot, with a record number of days in the 90's and 100's, and I'm sure that's at the root of the problem!

Nancy, owned by Frank the Tank and Tina the Sock-stealer