Hotspots & pregnancy?

[northwoodsGSD]

I've been lucky enough to have never dealt with hotspots before, till now. One of my dogs has a hotspot & is also pregnant. She has been the vets & is on a(safe) low dose antihistamine & anitibiotic. I'm looking for a safe topical treatment I can use to help dry it up & stop the itching. Poor girl is going bonkers & really hates the cradle collar.
My vet did say I could use witch hazel & cold compress to help, just looking for other possible ideas too.

[Barb E]

50/50 water and Apple Cider Vinigar (Organic and Raw, I use Braggs)

[GSDextrodinaire]

Shave the area around the hot spot so the fur doesn't ticklel the area. Spray with listerine, pat dry and coat with gold bond powder. A couple days and it is gone.

[Liesje]

To prevent itching it open, my dog had to wear a sock/bandage on his foot. He also wore a T-shirt (hot spot was on his shoulder) but not all the time so it could dry out.

[Barb E]

Dee's right, Dante had one that I had to shave around - didn't catch it soon enough.

[Lauri & The Gang]

The way hotspots form is the dog licks/chews an area on their body, usually where there's lots of fur, and the hair traps the moisture and it cannot dry. The area becomes "hot" - as in a wound.

The more the dog licks/chews the area the more it spreads the moisture and the bacteria that has now formed - the bigger the spot gets.

So - trimming the hair around the spot allows air to get in there and dry it out.

Keeping the area DRY is what 'cures' the spot. Trim the hair, wash the area with soap and water to clean it and kill any bacteria and then keep it dry! Prevent the dog from licking or chewing it.

This does not fix the underlying cause for the spot - why the dog was licking/chewing in the first place. That you need to figure out or the dog will keep creating spots.

[Andaka]

I have always had good luck with Sea Breeze on hot spots. It is alcohol based facial astringent with menthol and other oils added. the alcohol dries it up and the oils taste bad so the dog won't chew on it.

[northwoodsGSD]

Thanks all!
Lauri, I'm pretty sure it started out as a small bug bite. We had a really wet few days followed by hot weather(unusual for us). It brought all kinds of midges & biting flies out in swarms. I didn't use any type of bug spray on her, due to her being pregnant. She now just stays in the house if bugs are bad out.

[WiscTiger]

I have had hot spots pop up on Lakota and I know it isn't from him licking on them because he couldn't reach where the spots were.

I am not always sure why they get them, but I hate it. I use a topical spray by Zymox and in 2 days they are all gone or healing up very well.

Val

[Liesje]

Val, Coke's was not from licking either, it was on his shoulder, weird spot b/c it's more of a dry, exposed spot and cannot be licked. The only thing we could think of was maybe he was always sleeping on the same side, and his crate usually doesn't have blankets just the plastic tray so it's possible moisture was getting locked in his very thick coat.

I posted about it here b/c I'd never seen one before. We went out for lunch for an hour and when we came back, he suddenly had this silver dollar sized sore that was oozing and smelled really bad, it came on so fast.

He is such a baby and so big and strong I took him to the vet to get shaved. And I heard him screaming in the back room, lol. They gave me antibiotics and steroids but I gave him neither. Once the vet shaved it so it could dry it looked better instantly.