Do you have a home remedy for hotspots?

[Happy Valley]

She has very sensitive skin, and must have very gentle shampoo. Is there a (home) remedy for hotspots that is safe for a dog with her skin type?

 

[Robin1]

When mine get them I spray them with BlueKote (sp?) it works great.

Robin

 

[HaazeMinis]

Hi

I LOVE ST. BERNARDS!

: We have one as well!

: Our big guy is 6 years old now and he does not have have the sensitive skin, but he does have his share of eye problems... But as far as hotspots, Is she chewing herself raw because of dry skin or something else(fleas, ect ect..) the reason I ask is because we have a German Shepard who is an indoor dog and in the winter we have to add oil in his food and give him an OTC medication sometimes because he will itch & chew until he drives himself crazy.

With that said, yes I have taken him to the vet for this in the past and he does not do well if he is given Prenisone (sp). So the other alternative was to give him oil in his food and benedryl and that combination works for his dry skin in the winter. The vet had told me before that indoor dogs have more problems with dry skin than outdoor dogs in the winter just like people do which makes sense to me and we dont have fleas here at our place THANK GOD or else that would be a whole different problem. :bgrin I have had those types of problems years ago in CA when I was showing and raising St. Bernards.

Oh and maybe another suggestion would be to switch Dog Foods to an all natural dogfood. My vet told me that some dogs are allergic to corn which is the main ingredient in alot of dogfoods. Do some reasearch and talk to your vet about different dogfoods and treatment options. :bgrin .

Our next step if Max continues to get worse with his itching is switch dog food and we will problably be trying Candaii (sp) I dont have the information in front of me, but I have heard some good things about it.

Good Luck & I hope she gets better

Jeri

 

[sfmini]

We have had great luck with Desitin.

 

[dbarjminis]

I'd be interested to know what you guys are feeding your dogs. Some might be prone to getting hotspots anyway, but quite often, it's severe skin irritation from allergies also. Basically anything you see a commercial for or ad in a newspaper/mag. is junk! If you can buy it in a grocery/department store, it's junk! Half the stuff you can buy at Petsmart/Petco is junk! Definately try going to something that is corn/soy free for sure. Next alternatives are to remove chicken and wheat. Canidae is an excellent dog food. Natural Balance is a great food too and does have allergy formulas, so if your dog doesn't like one kind, try another, this brand is one of the few I know of that has more than one or two varieties (such as a general all life stages and a senior). GO Natural is a new food that's really good as is Evolve. If money is an issue Chicken Soup for the Dog is a good food to try and about the lowest priced one. There are some others that are great as well, but these are the ones I know of personally that are definately corn/soy free, and some wheat free.

I had a lady call me a couple weeks ago and she reserved a GSD pup from our litter. She also told me that her current GSD was very itchy and she thought it had food allergies, which she told her vet, so they advised switching her to Purina Beneful of all things. What crap! This is complete junk, loaded with allergy causing junk. The vet's next recommendation was Science Diet, also complete junk. My vet recommended switching my little housedog that has a slow metabalism and likes to sleep, hence a bit pudgy even on a diet, to Science Diet Lite. I laughed at her. Their filler (or used to be at least) is peanut hulls, so the dog can eat more and not have the calories. What a joke. All Science Diet is junk also, but vets recommend it cause they get a kick back from it. Iams is junk now too since it's gone to grocery stores, they changed the formula and our dogs started getting awful from it 3 years ago when we fed it. Iams is the home to Eukenuba, which is equal to what the Iams was now. It's better than a lot of other feeds, but still has corn in it. Anyway, this poor allergic GSD was eating Beneful for it's allergies, as recommended by the vet and getting massive doses of Prednisone daily. She immediately went out the next day and bought Natural Balance, quit the Prednisone (which is steroids, can cause serious side effects) and I talked to her again last week and the dog is doing wonderful already!

Look at your dogs food and don't be afraid to spend the money on the good stuff. Dog Chow recommends feeding 10 cups a day I last knew to a 100 lb dog. Our male GSD gets 4-5 cups a day of Canidae. Less food goes in = cut your feed used in half = save money = less poop coming out = less shoveling!

 

[runamuk]

OK here is my quick fix to stop the worrying at a hot spot and making it worse......ANBESOL or a similar gum numbing product spread on the sore spot......it numbs the sore and if the dog licks it they punish themselves with a numb tongue :bgrin

I agree you need to figure out what is causing the hot spot to completely cure it but this was the only way I found to stop my one dog from making them worse until I could figure out the cause.......she had flea allergies BAD and once I was late with her advantage treatment...she also was severely allergic to beef and someone sneaked her a bite of hamburger

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[CLC Stables]

Farnam pet products just came out with a new product and I can't think of it off the top of my head. Truly a great product................I will try and think of it.

 

[Kathy2m]

My first corgi had skin problems, I was told by a breeder to try DOMESBORO, it is in the drug stores in a box you add water and sponge it on. Its for humans. I also dont like predizone for dogs my first corgi was on them, he developed seizures later, I was told that could have been from the predizone. Next corgi went to a breeder that guaranteed no problems. Good Luck, Kathy

 

[BigDogs & LittleHorses]

Hi Stacye,

I've been lucky enough to have had very few hot spots for the last ten years that I have had Saints. Usually it occurred after I groomed one for showing so I think that I didn't get all of the shampoo out. I feed Pro Plan Beef and Rice but have also fed Chicken and Rice. I don't really know of any remedies to treat them.

I think the skin allergies tend to run in bloodlines. The breeders that I got my dogs from had a popular stud that seemed to throw that problem. They fed him Pro Plan special allergy or something like that. Had weird protein sources like duck and kangaroo!

:

Good luck!

Daryl