Sign in or 
Location: Dogs & Dog Rescue Discussion Forum
Discussion: Low cost care for hotspots
Category:
Discussion Forum /
Hound Lovers
Share this
Showing 10 posts
meyati |
Low cost care for hotspots
Sep 16 2009, 12:43 PM EDT
Hi, since the meds work-but the itching, etc comes back, there are some low-cost, low-energy things that you can do.They have several brands of hydrocortizone spray for dogs. You can buy them just about anywhere pet supplies are sold. It fights skin allegies on pets and keeps them from itching so much. I spray Missy everyday, and it keeps her comfortable. If I miss a couple of days, the skin on her chest and stomach and turns to red. spots. Another thing is shampoo and rinse with hydrocortizone in it. It helps to keep the skin from itching. One of Missy's problems with hot spots was that she's a licker and they couldn't heal. The simplest way is to buy "Bitter Cherry Spray." It's cheap-in a pump bottle-all natural-alcohol free. When Missy gets irritated, I'll spray that on. She gets scratches from running hard in the dark with Stonewall-then she'll lick and lick until it's a sore. I spray her areas before bed, in the am, whenever. See if the hydrocortizone and bitter cherry can reduce your vet bills. Also you can use an over the counter cure for hot spots and then spray it so the hound won't lick the med off. My vet and I think that stress affects the reaction to that flea med. Missy is very nervous and was stressed out, so the reaction was worse. I put her in a dog training school, and she got the hot spots after 3 weeks of dog school. I saw some ticks on the floor that droped off a dog. Missy was getting more hotspots and I was scared that she had something contagious from the school. That's why my vet did skin scrapings-to make sure that some weird fungus wasn't going around-whatever. Then when I gave her the second dose, I took her for a walk. She almost collapsed halfway around the block. I had to sit under trees for her to rest. When we got home, she collapsed and slept on my bed-no food-no water; Then 6 hours after the flea med, she was all red-swelled up everywhere.
Do you find this valuable?
Keyword tags:
allergies
excessive licking
itching
vet bills
walkersd
|
|
meyati |
1. RE: Low cost care for hotspots
Sep 16 2009, 1:11 PM EDT
| Post edited: Sep 16 2009, 1:12 PM EDT
The vet said to give her an over the counter benadryl. That took the swelling down and made her sleepy. She just didn't get any better, so I took her in. Stonewall will use up the flea med, but I'll go back to the old one in early spring for Missy. Your walker will probably get over some of the reaction for several reasons-older dog-probably not as nervous or stressed out. Probably your hound was just stressed from being in a new home. Snakes at dog school probably stressed Missy out big time. They have snake cages behind a wood barrier. She'd be looking at the barrier when we walked by. The second lesson, we had to stop there and Missy was sniffing and looked over the barrier. She missed the week that she was sick. She acted up greatly, after the snakes were brought to their cages. The last lesson, they were getting ready to bring the snakes out. A person behind me flipped some pages, which sounded like a rattler. Missy froze-with bugged out eyes- She wouldn't move. Then she slowly came over to me-stood up on her hind legs and saw the woman flip the papers again. Missy went back to her place. They brought out pics of rattlers and a woman got mad, and said she was there for the training. She left-they said anybody that wanted to leave could-about 10 people did-we did get our certificates. The next night was Stonewall's second lesson-He had already found the snakes-they said that thet would introduce the snakes in lesson 3, instead of lesson 8-the last lesson. Stonewall was nervous in the snake area-it clicked on me that the snakes probabley made Missy more nervous and sicker in her reaction to the flea med. We haven't been back since. When I lived in Georgia, East Texas and Arizona, everybody said that dogs, horses, cattle and hogs could smell the poison and didn't get bit very often. Most cases were when a rattler was on the porch and the dogs' instinct was to protect the family from the snake.
Do you find this valuable?
|
sbarbre |
2. RE: Low cost care for hotspots
Sep 16 2009, 3:17 PM EDT
hey found the thread! thanks for your advice on that, i did buy some hydrocortizone spray for dogs by seargents but i didn't use it that much because it contained alcohol and i did not want it to burn him real bad b/c he did have open wounds
Do you find this valuable?
|
|
meyati |
3. RE: Low cost care for hotspots
Sep 17 2009, 9:42 AM EDT
I use "Hartz" Advanced Hydrocortizone spray. No alcohol- It's also a soother for minor cuts and slashes. It has aloe-which is a natural plant in East Texas- you can break a leaf off and rub it on a small burn and it's like magic-pain gone. White dogs just have more skin problems than darker dogs. Some people even buy protective UV suits-people use sunscreen, etc. I just use the hydrocortizone products as the grass-heat-humidty-carpet-whatever bothers Missy's stomach. I think that our Walkers were probably without water too. We have an older bully dog that we cut loose and brought home in 2000-over a 100-no shade-no water- she got an eye-ear-skin-bronchitis and pnuemonia infections from dehydration. Antibiotics cleared everything up except the skin. She got weekly hydrocortizone shoots for her first summer. Then pills for part of the next summer-she seemed to have some immediate relief from the hydrocortizone-so we switched to that and it was lots cheaper. She got where she had only minor problems by 2004-3 years later. Missy didn't have any of these skin problems in her first summer-last year-so I think that stress is part of it. We had new neighbors move in with toy dogs. They thought that it was fun to walk up the driveway, which isn't near a propert line, and lift their yapping things up and tease the hounds. I tried talking to there people and was threatened or told that if a hound busted through my window and got them, that they'd sue. A friend about 10 miles away in a gated community basically had the same problem and Animal Control told him to take his Rottweiler to obedience school to protect it. By that time, Missy wanted to kill all small dogs. So, I got her in a large class filled with toy dogs. I muzzled her for the first 3 lessons. She got where she could walk by a chihuahua or what ever or have one try to sniff her or bark. They had the snakes and she got dog hives all over her after the last flea med.
Do you find this valuable?
|
|
sbarbre |
4. RE: Low cost care for hotspots
Sep 18 2009, 8:00 AM EDT
Tango doesn't mind small dogs. My mom has two and whenever they get near him, all they do is contantly sniff him -it's so funny but Tango just ignores them.. he doesn't pay them any attention. However, cats are a different story. He hates cats, on the internet it says that they think cats are prey. Our neighbor has a tom cat that is there half of the time and he sits there in our drive way and justs taunts Tango. he eventually stops barking though.
Do you find this valuable?
|
|
meyati |
5. RE: Low cost care for hotspots
Sep 18 2009, 10:38 AM EDT
Mine don't or I should say didn't mind cats. They came in and I hollered and grabed the choke chain and they let Stretch walk around. My youngest grandson had to move in and he brought his female cat that busted about $2,000 of Indian pottery. When the hounds ignored her, she'd walk up and scratch them. The chase was on. They'd be sleeping and I'd watch that cat walk back and forth over their legs. Once the cat swiped missy's ear and got an artery. Blood was spurting every where-high on the walls, the floor. It scared Missy and she ran, the faster she ran the faster her heart pumped and more blood came out, which scared her more. I caught her and held her still. I grabbed her her and folded it and squeezed to clot the slash. A friend was over and got a salt box for me. I poured ther salt all over that ear and squeezed. The third time it took. I was thinking that she'd bleed out by the time I got to a 24 hour vet-and she still got really car sick on rides. After that, we locked the cats in a spare room during the day and and I kept the hounds in my room at night. One night, I was walking past the little cat, and she jumped on my back. She had her claws out and slid down my back-I had blood every where and was trying to get her off- She ran into the front room-jumped up on the entertainment center and then launched herself into the pottery that was in the bookcase. My grandson didn't want his cat, so several months later, I ran an ad in the newspaper and a family with a 12 yr. old girl took the cat. I gave them its medical records-license and microchip info, etc. What's funny is that they are relatives of my son's very best friend in high school. Then there were lots of stray cats that came here during a dry heat wave for water. They ate all of the birds and one teased my dogs non-stop.
Do you find this valuable?
|
|
meyati |
6. RE: Low cost care for hotspots
Sep 18 2009, 11:10 AM EDT
| Post edited: Sep 18 2009, 11:14 AM EDT
There're still lots of cats, but I bought a live animal trap and took some to the city shelter. Most of the cats that I took were sick anyway.. Like you say-it sat in front of the windows-walked on top of the walls back and forth, etc. When my next door neighbor moved in, she toted her chihuahua over and sat it on the grass near my front porch. I asked her not to and that I shouldn't have to clean up after her dog. We stepped out for a pack walk and it came charging us. I figured that it would be a "She said, I said thing" and I didn't want any of my dogs fight any dog, so I pulled them in the house-2 hounds-one bully dog. She began carrying it up to the window to sic it on my dogs-other neighbors moved in and began doing the same thing. Then July 6, we were walking in a business area. A small dog jumped out of an open window of a parked car. It ran up and bit Stonewall. I hurt my hand and knee, throwing myself on the sidewalk to keep all of us from being drug out into a 6 lane street by a freeway ramp. The owner came out. When he picked his dog up, Missy and Stonewall sat down next to me. I hollered to see if his dog was okay. he stopped, looked and said it was just covered with slobber. He drove off . I had to lean on the hounds shoulders to get up. The leash was loose, but their heads were swiveling back and forth-looking for more danger. The neighbors with toy dogs were screaming that they'd sue me-they're nuts. So I took Missy to school, where she learned to relax when she was near little dogs. I bitched about this to everyone; the old neighbors talked to the new ones. So they quit bringing their dogs 29.5 feet up the driveway. When we walk, they look at cats-but they don't even take a step toward them or make a noise. Last week some small dog was loose and it ran up toward mine. I think the hounds said something, without any vocal-the little loose dog stopped and stayed still. I carry spray, it works real well.
Do you find this valuable?
|
|
meyati |
7. RE: Low cost care for hotspots
Sep 20 2009, 11:18 AM EDT
Yesterday we saw the smartest little dog in the world, as far as I'm concerned. It was in the car and they just pulled up in the driveway. It jumped out and went to the rear of the car, as they began getting things out. It saw the hounds-trotted up to the gate by the house and went into the fenced yard-chain link-only then did it bark and strut. The women turned and saw us in the street and made a remark that their dog was stupid. I told them what it had done to protect itself and to alert them-I told them that many dogs come out and I have to spray them, but their dog is really, really smart.
Do you find this valuable?
|
|
sbarbre |
8. RE: Low cost care for hotspots
Sep 21 2009, 8:07 AM EDT
Wow, that's awful about what that cat did. I've never owned cats before and do not know that much about them but this one my neighbor has is stubborn. I think that if Tango ever got the chance, he would kill the cat. I think that he thinks it is his prey. I don't know if he was a hunting dog before i got him or not, they just said he was a stray.
Do you find this valuable?
|
|
meyati |
9. RE: Low cost care for hotspots
Sep 23 2009, 12:57 AM EDT
most dogs chase cats as prey-instinct-some cats are really nice-they have different personalities-and breeds are different. My son had a Siamese cat that jumped in the bath tub and swam when he had his bath-that's not unusual for that breed. Our old persian type is a recluse, but he came out and let us know that burglers were in our house. He jumped up on our beds and squalled. We all thought that he wanted more food-if we got up, we'd probably been beat up. Everybody kept yelling and cussing for the cat to leave us alone. I had my 20 yr. something grandsons visiting. The cops caught them because they were violent. They took my book bag and the cops found some of my teaching materials with my name on it. People that are nice don't see him, but if somebody comes that he doesn't like-he comes out. Some cats-especially females love to tease dogs-they're drama queens. Most cats are in between my recluse and the drama queens. Some cats will walk on a leash like a dog-I've never seen one do it in real life. I've seen several cats at the vet that just sat on their humans lap, while dogs barked. Their owners din't hold them or anything. When I was a kid, I had a Persian that we dressed up in baby clothes. Then we tucked it in a baby carriage and gave it a baby bottle of milk. We girls pushed it all over the neighborhood. I guess this guy was curious about 8 year old girls taking care of a baby. He freaked out when he saw fur face in a baby bonnet and baby dress, with a baby blanket tucked over his legs. Stretch weighs about 15 lbs. He gets so hot that he pulls his hair out in clumps. I decided to brush him-he broke out. I thought that it was ring worm. The vet said that it was cat acne-Cat acne!! I didn't know that cats got zits!! This summer I was talking to someone at the vet. Their cat got cat acne too from brushing. You worship cats-they bless you with their presence-mostly when they're hungry.
Do you find this valuable?
|
