Reoccurring Hotspots - Page 3

For no better words, a hot spot occurs when a dog chews on a spot that itches. The dogs saliva gets the spot moist, creates more chewing and voile' a spot occurs that is oozing and the hair falls out. It has to be stopped or they will coninue to work on it and it can get very large. I have been fortunate to have had only a few on my dogs in 18 years or so. I found Listerene Original (brown) works well and doesn't seem to sting like you would think. I also agree that a RAW or Natural (human food) diet will lesson the problem. I think it does have to do with allergies dogs develope. To me, you are what you eat, and even if the dog has inhallent allegies it may have allergies to other things. Some food, fleas, contact etc. so if you can reduce the amount of histamines bombarding the system, the immune system can then very well handle the other allergens. I personally think dog food is the culprit. Yes dogs can maybe be tested free from being allegic to chicken, beef, wheat etc. but what about all the chemicals in dog food that are not listed??? My female is allergic to most dog foods. Itches like she has the worse case of fleas imaginable . But yet she can eat the human grade version of anything on the package. Like corn, rice, chicken, beef , wheat etc. So whats in dog food with the same ing. she can't handle???? BTW I feed 99% RAW now and she hardly itches.

Thanks for the info

I feed royal canine to both of my dogs.  The two year old almost never scratches.  The younger one does but the only time it seems to be bad is after swimming.  Other than that she seems to be ok and it doesnt bother her that bad.....at least not bad enough to take her to the vet.

A friend in my club feeds only raw and seems to know what she is doing when it comes to feeding.  But, her pup did have a hot spot....and she only feeds raw and the good stuff.  She does swim him...wonder if that could have been the problem?

My male has some allergies, but overall not too terrible.  I used to give him allergy injections, but have found that they really weren't helping all that much and they are truly not that bad.  I do think that there is a bit of a food compotent, I find that he's a bit more itchy on certain foods.  I went through the whole elimination diet and right now he's on Eukanuba Performance and for whatever reason, he's doing quite well on that food.  In the summer though, I find that he gets the occasional quarter size hot spot, I trim the fur back with scissors and treat with Genesis Spray. 

The one thing that he gets is that his ears when he's having a flare up look as if they are fly bitten.  That luckily usually only happens in the spring.  He came up allergic to trees for I'm guessing that's why he's bad then.  So, for him,  a month or so on an anthistamine does the trick.  I know that they say allergies usually get worse with age, but his has gotten better. 

Crazee4GSD, I know what you mean they come first and it is hard when you see one biting and itchy with hot spots and if depo is the only thing to do during a crisis then it will work to get them over a acute stage. Just some other thoughts mentioned above is diet the salmon oil and raw diet like yellowrose says would be another step. The lady in Florida has used the above shampoo as well she said this one was stronger for allgeries and skin conditions that were hard to manage but the other is a great product as well.

Marlene