Help !!! Hot Spot

[Shelloaz]

godfreyc....did you have a scraping done? What did the vet say was the cause of it?

loosing every bit of hair on her whole back

Did your vet mention anything about Cushing's disease? While I was doing research on Mange I saw pics of Cushing's. The poor dog was bald all over! They also had pics of Generalized Mange and it also was all over the body with patches of hairloss. The spot that is on my dog is under his chin and it's about 2 inches long.

[godfreyc]

It isn't mange. It didn't even initially show with any typical symptoms of mange and the vet said he's certain that isn't what. Initially he thought bug bites (I still believe this could have caused it) It started as a small spot the way you described and then exploded with infection. She is other wise a healthy dog with good appetite and has been confined since this started. As I said the infection is under control but apparently she will have to loose all her hair to get rid of the scabbing. He did a full blood panel and found nothing but the infection that was obviously ravaging her poor little body. We will be going back again $400 dollars later for more blood work soon to make sure we've defeated her infection. I'll also add after doing a quick search on the cushings disease that she has no distended stomach, and picture I saw and the picture I saw showed smooth skin at the site of hairloss my girl has lots of scabs.

[HtotheNootch]

When I lived in Atlanta Brodie developed a spot and chewed it quite a bit, my Vet believed it was mosquitos rather than fleas. According to her many Rots are allergic to mosquitos so that may be the case.

[Shelloaz]

I have an update....vet still thinks Keira's spot is some kind of bite that left a bump under the skin, he will remove it when we have her spayed. Harley on the other hand is not doing good. The spot under his chin is a bacterial infection so I have to give him Cephalexin and Dermalone ointment for that. I had him run a total blood screen. His immune system is stimulated, but the results from the Valley Fever wont be back until tomorrow or Wed. I think that is what the vet is thinking he has though :( From what I have heard, the medication to treat it is very expensive and I may have to treat for the rest of his life as long as it works and he doesnt die first. I cant believe all this is happening just from him having a hot spot !!! I'm trying to wait and not worry too much until I get the results back. There is still something going on though with his immune system being off, so if its not Valley Fever then I will have to have more tests done to try and figure out what is wrong. Does this sound familiar to anyone else? Last year at this time he was 78 lbs. and now he's 67 lbs., he is shedding something terrible, appetite is not as good, and he acts like his joints are sore. Sorry for going on so long, I have been so worried about him.

[Shelloaz]

The vet called today, Harley has Valley Fever :( He will be perscribing Diflucan. Hopefully that will pull him through.

[Ocean]

I'm so sorry to hear about all the problems with your Rotties - it's just as bad as having your kids sick with an unknown illness, you feel so helpless! And our canine babies can't even tell us what it feels like. Ocean had a bite in her front armpit (legpit?) that swelled up and it made me frantic - turned out it was an old bite that was no longer infected but was puffed up with dead tissue that just had to be reabsorbed on its own. Gross! I had a frantic couple of days there, thinking it was something awful and I was going to lose her. I'm glad you at least know what the problem is and can do something to help him now. Anything is better than not knowing!