German Shepherds Forum banner

Tail hot spot, having a hard time with this one. Anyone had injured tail?

1K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  vomlittlehaus 
#1 ·
Hi everyone.

My boy Zeus has a gorgeous coat, beautiful skin and all in Florida heat. In the spring when he was loosing his winter coat he ended up with 6 or 7 minor hot spots all down his spine. It was time for his vet visit anyway so we took him in. He was sent home with some gent spray and his spots were healed within two days and no hair clipping was needed.

This is his current diet and recommendations vet has made since that visit. Zeus has been doing amazing with this diet.

TOTW Salmon

Flax seed capsules (vet told us to switch to human flax seed instead of salmon as he does not believe the pet salmon oil is regulated too well)

Vitamin C - to lower blood histamine levels (dogs make their own vitamin C but adding extra has this effect)

Coconut oil

Zyrtec for a few days as needed

Anyways all summer since April he has been doing amazing and everyone asks us what in the world we feed to make his coat so beautiful.

Recently about two weeks ago i saw him chewing on his tail, not the back end, but towards the tip of his tail. I started looking at it and he had bleeding spots, dry blood, scabs. I have been washing his tail with medicated shampoo as well as have applied gent spray, but it just keeps getting re injured as soon as it gets better...

His HW med is Sentinel, and I have not used any additional flea medication on him this year. I checked him inch by inch everywhere, back of the tail, armpits, belly, and there is no fleas, no bites, no flea dust, he really has clean healthy skin. The only problem we are having is AWFUL mosquitoes! They are so bad that we had to inform the town.

Could mosquitoes be the problem??? is the tail fur too long for them to bite? i just have no idea why all the suddenly, why the tail...

Anyone els had a dog chewing tail raw and what did you do to help it?

P.S. is is currently wearing a cone and he is a sad panda.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Hey-

I just had to take my dog to the vet last Sunday for this. He had a raw, open, bloody, pus filled sore on his tail. The vet cleaned it with chlorhexidine, and he's on cephalexin for 10 days. The second day of taking the antibiotic, he stopped fussing with his tail..... I inspected it today - its still crusty and dry, but definitely healing.

Your dog could've gotten in from anything...a bug bite or simple irritation can lead them to excessive lick a certain spot. Is it open? And pus filled? If so, i'd get some antibiotics for him. If not, just try and keep him from licking it, keep it dry, and keep it clean.
 
#4 ·
Well I had my husband play with food tricks and i got a good look at the tail. It was pink and smelly like a hotspot but not overly covered in pus, just moist and pinkish from him chewing. not too raw.

i used lots of veteracyn to clean, he did not like it and was uncomfortable. Than i used hotspot gel and it instantly was soothing to him.

we covered is tail with a sock so he does not bother it, the gel is spread all over and will not allow any bacterial growth.

We will give his tail a bath in the morning, dry it and apply a little less gel and let it breath while he has a cone on. Will also give banadryl.

If not better by tomorrow evening, he will go to see our vet Tuesday, but most likely the vet will just call in a prescription for us. it's definitely not a cyst and not really a "true" hotspot as there is no hair loss. More like irritated bite.

Just don't know if mosquitoes can bite that deep with all the fur in the way. .
 
#5 ·
I'll take him to the vet tomorrow, the wound does not look bad but he is being such a baby about it and does not want me to touch it at all.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top