Hotspots General Chat

Bandit has been getting hotspots

I had typed out a long post and when I tried to post it I was told I had to be signed in. I’m getting really tired of that happening. Happens a lot to me. I do this on my phone. It’s why I so rarely reply anymore.

So the first hotspot the Vet thought was possibly related to his partially torn knee ligament. He was licking his ankle on the same back leg. The second hotspot was on his side. Both times he was treated by shaving the area, and antibiotic injection and antibiotic pills, as well as something for itching and inflammation. I was instructed to clean the area twice a day, with wipes provided by the Vet, and then applied some cream to help with healing and dryness. I was instructed to let the area dry before applying the cream

Had to log back in again. This is really frustrating. It’s why I keep posting in little bits, so I don’t lose too much if it says I’m logged out, even though I was logged in

The last time the Vet said the infection wasn’t as deep so after she had shaved the area I was cleaning it and applying antibiotic ointment. No injection or pills. After 4 days I was able to take the cone off, he wasn’t bothered anymore, and stopped applying the antibiotic ointment after 5 days, as it looked good to me. It healed up nicely. The instructions on the ointment said 14 days..

I had to log back in again after my last post when I said I’d had to login again. SUPER FRUSTRATING

During the last visit the Vet convinced me to give the dogs a 3 month flea and tick chew. She suggested the hotspots were caused by a flea allergy. She said that it would also prevent the hotspots if he did get bit.


My current dogs have never had fleas. I recently brushed out Bandit really well, he looked like he was ready for a show. No sign of fleas or flea eggs or flea poop.


So now he’s got another hotspot going. I caught this one pretty quick. I don’t have a dog trimmer, and don’t want to use my electric razor on him. I cleaned the area and applied antibiotic ointment. He’s got the cone on, again. At least he is used to the cone and doesn’t fuss when I put it on him.


I’m at a loss for what to do. I’ve spent almost $1000 on 3 Vet visits for this. Both dogs have been on the same food for 7 years. They’ve been getting the same after meal treats for a couple of years. I’m open to suggestions.


I will call the Vets in the morning and see if I can speak with her on the phone.


I’ve tried posting about this before but got fed up with being told I had to be logged in to post, when I was logged in. This time I’ve gotten smart and I’m composing this outside of Breedia and will copy and paste it into the forum.

I tried to post some pictures. First time I was told the photo was too big. Never had that happen before. Second time I was told I had to be logged in, AGAIN

Our dogs recently had what appeared to be hotspots caused by fleas. What helped us was:

• putting coconut oil on the spots, and also feeding them the oil (go by the container directions) about twice a week. We used Raw Paws brand.
• Advantect II flea medicine - it was cheaper than other brands but had good reviews online
• using bedding-safe flea spray on the bedroom carpet (no carpet in most of the rest of the house), especially around their bed-time crates. We used Vet's Best Flea + Tick.
  
• washing the bedding in the crates, and also using the flea spray on it
• vacuuming the bedroom carpet once a day

I hope that Bandit will get better very soon!

Both of your issues are frustrating Marc!

For the website issues, you might try clearing your cache and cookies on the phone. That will log you out of all sites, so be sure you know your passwords. But it may be enough to reset your connection.

Hot Spots. Ugh. So many possible causes and difficult to diagnose.

First, at sign of a hot spot, I would treat with the ointment for the full 14 days even if it clears up sooner. The infection can still be in his system even if the physical signs disappear.

When Tornado-dog was about 6 months old, he lost the hair around his eyes. The vet said it was caused by a mite that normally, without issue, lives on dogs. She recommended that I give him ongoing flea treatments even though he has no fleas. She did say he will likely outgrow it. I had him on it for about three years and it worked. I tried stopping it at one point when he was about 2-1/2 and the hair loss started up again. When I stopped at 3-1/2, he was fine. So, even without it being fleas, the treatment could be effective for other mites, etc, and is worth trying.

If it's caused by an allergy, it could be from anything. Even something that he's been fine with before. And figuring out what it is can be exhausting and complicated. That it does seem to be responding to the antibiotic is a good sign. It could be from something outside. We had that false spring and lots of plants started to bloom. You might try wiping his feet and brushing him out after every trip outside in case he is making contact with something. Washing his bedding every day (or cover it with a blanket and switch that out every day) may help prevent issues too.

Did he have a blood test done to check for internal issues?

So as I stated there is absolutely no physical signs of fleas. The Vet used a flea comb trying to find and evidence of fleas and she also found nothing. I expressed that if it’s a flea allergy that he could still get bit by a single flea and have an allergic reaction (if that’s what is happening) despite the Rx medication. She claimed the (I think it was Brevecta) flea meds would prevent an allergic reaction. So it’s either not from fleas or he’s still having an allergic reaction despite what the Vet claimed. We live in the forest, very rural. The dogs have tromped down almost every bit of vegetation in their fenced yard. We definitely have multiple types of rodents around that probably run through the yard at times, from mice, to wood rats, to tree rats (squirrels). They could possibly be dropping a few fleas in the yard.

My house has zero carpets, it’s all hardwood, tile or linoleum.

I don’t think I could put coconut oil on Bandit without Katie Mae wanting to lick it off of Bandit.

Like I said, there is absolutely zero physical evidence of any fleas. My current 2 dogs have never had a problem with fleas, nor did my dog before that, all Akitas.

As far as the website issues I regularly clear that stuff from my phone and I always log out of this particular site when I leave.

Both dogs are now on a 3 month flea and tick Rx med. I don’t think it’s even been a month since they started on it. Like I’ve said, I don’t usually give them meds for this as we haven’t had an issue.

The only thing he is coming into contact with outside is dirt. They’ve killed everything else. He’s a big dog with thick fur. It would be very time consuming to really brush him out completely every time he’s been outside, plus he isn’t fond of having the inside of his legs brushed, or his belly. When I want to wipe his feet off when it’s been raining he doesn’t much like that either.

He hasn’t had blood tests. I declined that a few visits ago as it was an additional $200+. I’m still on temporary state disability so I really don’t have any excess money, so I’ve tried to limit what we do at the Vets, as I often think they do too much. Like giving an antibiotic shot as well as Rx pills. I remember early into Covid Bandit had the same issue. I wasn’t allowed inside at that time. I told them no antibiotic injections, just the Rx antibiotic pills, and that cleared it up. They suggested at that time that it “might” be from fleas, but once again there was no physical evidence of any flea activity on him.

I do cover their beds with old comforters, but I don’t have laundry facilities at home, so washing daily would be less than ideal.

I just had to log back in to edit this post. This is ridiculous.

There beds have 2 covers besides the comforters.The outer cover is basically dig proof and the inner cover is waterproof. Super high quality foam as well, I think it’s 10 year foam. Not cheap but worth every penny. I highly recommend these beds. Katie Mae used to tear through covers on other beds. K9 Ballistics

I totally understand the "there are no fleas" bit. I've had that discussion with my vet before - explaining to her that there are no fleas at all in my yard or home and that none of the animals have them. I was just thinking that he could be having a reaction to a microscopic mite like Tornado-dog did. In that case, the flea meds helped. I never did treat Cat-dog for fleas since they weren't the issue. Only Tornado-dog got treated.

I know out here, the pollen count is very high. That false spring got everything blooming. So it could be a reaction to pollen in the air. If he'll stand for it, you could try just running a damp cloth over his coat to catch what you can. Even with allergy meds, my throat is phleming up in reaction to the pollens.

Have you tried benedryl? Maybe that in conjunction with the antibiotics would break this current cycle.

It's difficult. Skin issues are so difficult to diagnose. Most vets start with the obvious - fleas - and then slowly work out from there.

We used to have two Rottweiler/ GSD crosses at work and they had a double skinned kennel they lived in together with a run that they used to be locked in during the day and let out at night. Anyway one of the dogs started losing her fur, her eyes went sore and she was forever rubbing her head against the wire, after numerous visits to the vets with medication and flea treatment we narrowed it down to them sleeping on straw In the kennel as it wasn’t getting any better with the vets visits, we replaced it with shredded paper ( had to change it more frequently with this) and after awhile she started to get better, albeit the fur never really grew back around her eyes fully. So turned out she possibly had allergies to straw and mites that might have been in it.
So could it possibly be an allergy that’s near where you live from something?

If it’s an allergy to something near where I live, it’s something that hadn’t bothered him for the previous 8 years. And as far as it being from a high pollen count currently, the first of these hotspots was, I believe, in November. We would be having different pollen now vs 4 months ago.

I called the Vets office and spoke to someone at the front desk. I’m waiting on a call back from the Vet.

Edit
This time I was able to post without being told I had to login (again),

Allergies are weird. You can never be bothered by something for years and then suddenly one day have a reaction to it. Or it's a combination of contaminants that you are reacting to - either on their own is fine, but the two together is problematic. Or it's because of something altogether different that you suddenly become sensitive to allergens - medications do this.

But truly, this is why skin issues areso difficult to diagnose. Because how do you whittle away at all the possibilities? If you use public or a friend's clothes washer/dryer, something may have gotten transferred to your laundry. It could be the food. Even if you feed the same thing, the manufacturer may have changed one of the ingredients. And on and on.

It's frustrating as all heck. I remember reading an article about a dog in a New York shelter who was having horrid skin allergies. The vets could not figure it out and they had just about decided to the dog down. But someone decided to see if Best Friends in Utah could help. They took the dog out there and he suddenly started to improve. The Best Friends' vet finally determined that the dog was allergic to a specific tree common in the northeast but non-existent in the west. When the dog moved away from those trees, the dog got better.

I had horrible hay fever as a child, growing up in western Massachusetts. Every spring and fall I would miss some school. I got allergy shots. When I moved to the west coast my allergy problems almost completely disappeared.

I never had allergies until I moved here. The surrounding mountains make a fishbowl of the valley and all the contaminants get stuck in out air. I now take zyrtec year round. But still have certain times (like right now) where my throat gets irritated from the pollens.

Talked to the Vet. She asked when the last time Bandit had a bath. It’s been at least 6 months. I didn’t want to have to drag him up 1/2 flight of stairs to the bathroom or lift him into the tub (front legs first, then back legs) because of his bad knee. So I’m going to pick up a medicated shampoo and give him a bath (Katie Mae too) and wash their comforters and the outer mattress covers. See if that helps. She told me to bring him up to the office on Thursday and she’ll shave the new hotspot without having to do an office visit and that I should keep applying the antibiotic ointment.

My dogs switch beds all the time, and Katie Mae hasn’t developed any hotspots and she hasn’t had a bath in the same amount of time.

I’m not sure I can give them both a bath on the same day, and go out to wash their bedding

I used to bath my bigger dogs outdoors. I had a ring fixed to the wall to hitch them to and used a (second hand) baby bath and a couple of buckets to wash first the front end, then the rear. I do realise that they didn't have the volume of coat that an Akita has though!
Have you thought of changing the protein source in their food? With Ed's inflammatory bowel condition I found that lamb,duck, white fish or salmon varieties were better for him than the chicken or beef ones.
Tally has licked one front foot ever since she moved here - no problem when she lived with her breeder. She has a teaspoonful of a 'skinny' blend of herbs on her kibble, a small squirt of wild salmon oil, and a Piriton tablet.
Piriton is cheap bought in larger sized packs online and is definitely worth a try. The dose for a Beagle is 1-2 tabs a day, I'll add a dosage guide to this.
Tal's foot has lost the moth-eaten look that it used to have, but if I see her licking it I say, 'no licky' and she usually stops. It seems to flare up about once a month so my vet lets me to have a small quantity of Prednisolone, (I think you say Prednisone), tablets which nip it in the bud if she starts to have a determined go at it.
The herbal blend comes from a small producer and herbalist in Wales, so I don't think you will have it in the US. It has been useful (but not magic) for Tally, and I can try and find out what the actual herbs are if you were interested. They recommend damping or adding salmon oil to kibble so the herb will adhere to it.

I apologize. I misunderstood your posts.