Pimples, or hot spots?

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rufnedge-2
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Pimples, or hot spots?

Post by rufnedge-2 »

Hello All, My 22 month old developed hot spots about 2 months ago. When he went to the vet he had the itchy raw spots on lower back, near the tail, on spots on the tail. As well as biting at legs,toes, and raw spots on mouth that crusted over. When I got to the vet it was under the light I noticed a red rash dot appearance up and down his spine, and off to the left and right of his spine. The bumps were raised and inflamed. He was treated with a steroid shot,21 days of an antibiotic, and a diet change immediatly. The treatment really fixed him up fast, and he was looking beautiful within a few days, and alot less itchy, those bumps went away. I shaved his fur, and applied some spray from the vet, which took some time, but eventually crusted and healed nice.
NOW today and for the last few days he's been biting at himself again. Found a bump near his tail, not raw, but slightly crusted. Felt his skin on his spine and hiding underneath that nice white and orange fur were white skin toned bumps with a yellow crusting. Some were flattened, dark crusting like an older healed bump. One looked just like a pimple, reddened with a white middle. But I can feel with my finger tips all these little bumps. He bites his legs, but no bumps are there. He's always had since he was a puppy dark pigmented skin in some areas, some areas are a nice milky white color. Where there is darker pigmented skin, the fur is thinner.
Can hot spots start out like this? Can they present as these bumps? These bumps seem to threaten that if i don't keep them clean they'll get infected, they could go either way. Then they seem like they could easily heal. Is it hives? Could he be allergic to a food? He's on a food from the vet right now due to the intestinal upset we may have caused by switching foods to quickly, he was on Cal.Natural Chicken Meal (stopped because he lost interest) then we went to Innova and mixed in EVO can. In between switching the only base food he was tolerating was chicken and rice. We did it to fast i'm sure of it...diarrhea with blood. He's much better now on the food from the vet, and he likes the Wellenss 95 % mixed in.
Any thoughts?
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Coco Chow
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Re: Pimples, or hot spots?

Post by Coco Chow »

Sorry about your puppy's skin condition...

It is allergy IMO, it can be food related or another allergy that can be tested by a blood test (like pollen or acarids in exemple), or both (like for my chow).

Coco's hotspot used to start when she put her teeth on her tail or on her back. First, her skin gets red then there is blood, than the fur is desapearing from the area.

About the food, consider that chicken is often considered as an itchy food for allergic chows like ours, compared to lamb or salmon...

About his dark skin with less fur on it, it is sometimes related to yeast problems like malassezia. Kiwani used to say:
kiwani wrote:
Ellie wrote: - What exactly are hot spots?
Most often staph infections, brought on by nutritional imbalances. A diet too high in inflammatory fats for instance, increases the itch factor, increases vulnerability to staph/malassezia yeasts.
kiwani wrote:That skin blackening might have been malassezia. Here's a related link from the archives, you'll be able to find more by using the keyword "malassezia" and also try "post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation"

topic - bald patch on the butt (close-up)
http://forum.chowchow.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10747
Elodie
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