The reason you will want to know about this as a dog owner of an allergic dog, is that throughout your dog’s life, they are going to need antibiotics to help them heal.

If you don’t have an allergic dog, this might seem like overkill, but if you have every taken an allergic dog into a vet, you will usually find that they are prescribed cortisone and an anti-biotic. The cortisone reduces the swelling for the dog until its own body defenses can get under control.   The anti-biotics are there to fight secondary infection.

What can you do to prevent dog pain that involves anti-biotics?  Well if you red our previous medicated shampoo article, you will know that dog allergy shampoos are crammed with anti fungal and anti bacterial medication.  This is because scratching and licking a foot or other part of the body is likely to break the skin and cause a secondary infection.  The anti-bacterial in theory lowers the bacterial population so that the dogs body can start healing the broken skin.

Technically  secondary bacterial infection of the skin in dogs is called pyoderma.  You will see this fancy word used a lot to bump up the price of the medication.

What dog bacteria are you fighting in dog allergies?

The bacteria that commonly causes this is called Staphylococcus intermedius or pseudointermedius.

Dogs should have preventative omega 3 mega doses and enough washing off of grasses if they are contact allergic to reduce swelling and itching.  While anti-histamines can also help – as discussed in previous articles  they are not a long term solution.  Not because of any build up, but they wont help if a skin infection (pyoderma) is allowed to persist.  it is a constant war that you need to be vigilant with.

No dog should be licking incessantly with any body part.

What is a hot spot re dog allergies?

Hot spots can be areas of flea or tick bite, or just an area of dog skin that was itchy, very itchy, the skin got broken, now its infected and it gets worse with the incessant licking and secondary infections. If a hot spot occurs on your dog you are going to have to gently clip the area and clean it regularly.

Dogs with hot spots must be put on antibiotics and often a short term course of cortisone is used to prevent the problem from continuing or worsening.