Allergies and Hot-spots

Welcome! As stated in my bio, I am certified in holistic animal care. I feel the need to note that I am not a veterinarian nor am I against conventional veterinary care, I just prefer to do what I can without adding unnecessary medications to my animal’s lives.

I have had animals my whole life and have worked as a vet tech and a common trend I see is hot-spots related to allergies. When I have taken an animal in for allergy related issues and what I witnessed as a vet tech was the vets wanted to automatically distribute a steroid shot.

I currently have an older pug that has dealt with allergies his whole life. He doesn’t do well with grain, bugs, grass, in other words it can get messy. He gets regular ear infections and, you guessed it, hot-spots.

His name is Archie. Archie started having issues with allergies at about 10 months old. Just minor things like runny nose and eyes, nothing major. By the time he was 1 year old, we were experiencing his first hot-spots. We are talking spots that ranged up to a quarter in size that were red and pus ridden (apologies to the squeamish).

My first instinct was my pup was sick and I needed to find out what was wrong. We went to the vet and he got his first steroid shot. At 2 years old, he had to have another, then another a few months after that. He was now up to 3 steroid shots in under 2 years.

I started learning more about steroids for animals and how they can cause effects at an older age even if you stop, but continuing to give them the shots makes it worse. It can increase chances of different cancers, organ problems, not to mention can just stop working altogether and have to be given higher doses.

Upon learning this, I also learned that dogs can have Benedryl as short term alleviation. You can safely give your dog 1mg/lb. Benedryl pills are sold as 25mg pills, so a 25 lb dog would need 1 pill as a dose. I started doing this with Archie when he would have a flare up.

He is also on a grain-free food that has had no recalls and gets vitamins. We wanted to make sure his immune system is keeping up, especially in his old age. So far we are up to almost a year with no severe hot-spots that have required more than a little ointment. This will be the first time in about 9 years I haven’t had to worry about it.

Now on to the important part, how to treat a hot spot. With Archie, I have found the following to be extremely helpful in speeding up his healing:

1. I take an electric razor and trim the hair away from the spot to ensure it can’t get trapped in there and cause more of an irritation.
2. I then take a warm wet washcloth and gently wash the area, I avoid soap because, like stated, we don’t want to increase irritation to the area. This will also help get any already damaged skin off the area.
3. I then like to take some plain diluted Epsom salt (dilute just a couple tablespoons in about 5 cups of water). Take a fresh washcloth and saturate it in the Epsom mix and gently clean the area again. Some dogs don’t like this part, but Archie seems to enjoy it. Epsom has purifying elements to it which will help in the healing of the area. (think of how good an Epsom soak feels on sore feet)
4. Finally I make sure it is dry and rub a little Neosporin or similar triple antibiotic on it. *sunshine will help to, but you want to watch it because there will be additional exposed skin and they could burn a little bit, but the sun is good for it*

My best advise and what we do for Archie:

1. Grain-free food: Archie gets Taste of the Wild but has been on Victor as well (it has gluten free grains in it). We order ours from Chewy and just set up auto ship.
2. Give them a good multi-vitamin: We use NuVet and love it. It is made here in the US with no additives or chemicals. You can order it here. *It isn’t sold in stores*
3. Give Benedryl when they start showing reactions 1mg/lb once a day for about a week. You want to give breaks between so that it still works and you can know when they are over their reaction.
4. If they get another hot spot, keep it clean, let it air, and help it heal.

I by no means would consider myself a professional because I am not a veterinarian. I do however believe in doing things as naturally as possible unless circumstances dictate otherwise. You know your pet and you ultimately know what they need. Like us, a lot of things can be combated with a good diet and making sure they are getting the vitamins they need.