Can't wait to see what everyone has to say. We are day 5 into my guy's hot spot. Gentomycin ain't working for him, and heading back to the vet today....grrrrr.....
Rubbing alcohol. It provides relief for the pain and itching. No, it doesn't burn and your dog is not going to jump in pain. No need to shave. Put an e-collar for a few days if it is too big. It'll be gone in 2-3 days.
We've been in a 'hot spot' situation with all this darn rainy weather. Tried all the old 'cures'....Gold Bond Powder, benadine, peroxide wash, benadryll...the spot got worse and started oozing. Finally went to the vet and $192.00 later we have an antibiotic that starts cepha........(?) 500ml pills - 2000ml a day and IT WORKS! Once a day we clean the site with an antibacterial soap and that's it. Give the pills with food twice a day two pills at a time. It's been 3 days now and the hot spot is healed over and hair is growing!
Usually the Gold Bond does the trick, but had one that seemed to come on overnight and was nasty. So off to the vet, tech shaved it, cleaned it up. Vet asked what I had on hand at home (love those vets who don't get a commission for dispensing products), and told me to give the Cephalexin and put a few drops of Mometamax on it daily. Worked.
Margie, ouch on that vet bill! I had the Ceph on hand, so our visit only cost me the $38 office visit.
To me, it depends on how bad the hot spot is and the time of year the hot spot occurs. If it's winter-time and you get a hot spot from pups playing with each other and harassing each other, then cephalexin seems to work great- maybe benadryl for a few days in conjunction, but overall- this works. Now, if it's summertime and you're dealing with 100% humidity in addition to the heat, we've found that a few days of prednisone plus the cephalexin is what it takes to get the "heat" and oozy out of the spot. Sometimes- if the dog is in glorious coat- you may even need to remove the hair from around the hot spot to make sure it's getting a good air supply at all times. Murphy's law will dictate this to always be the show side, but it will fix the problem!!
It depends on the "hot spot" sometimes Gold Bond, rubbing alcohol, colloidal silver or cleaning with anit-bacterial soap works. Other times....I have found the only thing that helps is shaving the area....making sure to leave a half inch of clear skin around it. Once the hair is removed the spot dries up on it's own. If you want to speed up the healing process...use Cephalexin 500 twice a day for a week or so.
Our vet usually gives a shot of hydrocortizone under the spot and it clears up rather quickly. A few years ago I had our girl in the show ring the next month with no hot spot :)
