Adi's Hot Spot

Last Saturday, Shiloh and I took Adi to a dog park in Shirlington (about 5 minutes from us). It has a small river that runs along the side of it, so tons of dogs come to play, especially on hot days. Adi had a great time, made lots of friends, but came home really sick. We think she may have drunk a lot of the river water, which is not very clean.

Sunday, when we returned from church, Adi had a large wet spot on the top of her back. Apparently, she had been licking it all morning. She did not want us to touch it, and yelped when we did. We weren't sure what to do, so we left her alone and hoped it would work itself out. That night was miserable. She woke up about every half and hour crying and trying to run away from whatever was hurting her. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep.

So the next morning I called our wonderful vet back in Pocatello, to see what I should do. He told me that her skin was probably irritated by a scratch and she had been licking it to try to make it feel better. Dogs do this I guess. Unfortunately, its not a good thing for them to do. Her licking had introduced bacteria and had cause an infection under the skin (ie: a hot spot), which is pretty common. He told us to shave the hair from the affected area, take some pictures that he would look at and then put an antibacterial ointment on it. This was a process – I don’t think I’ll be applying for a job as a vet’s assistant any time soon.

She didn’t eat, drink or sleep for a few days, which worried us, but after a couple days of the medication she was doing much better.

By Wednesday she was eating, drinking and sleeping again, as well as feeling the itch to get outside and play. We made her stay in, away from other dogs, for another day or two. By Friday she was pretty much back to normal. The infection had scabbed over and was coming of, and aside from it itching, she wasn’t paying much attention to it at all.

We are happy to have our healthy dog back, although having a lethargic one for a while was a nice change.