Twinkletoes

My toy poodle got a hotspot recently, and it sounds very similar. I found a site online that says Friars Balsam was good to use. I went to the vet, but after 5 days on antibiotics and some cream they gave me he started to break out with more in the surrounding area. The Friars Balsam cost me about $4 at the chemist, I just dabbed it on with a cotton bud...smells pretty bad. I also washed my boy with Malaseb during the week and cleaned the area with Apple cider vinegar (with the mother in it) on alternate days. A couple of hours after washing with the vinegar I reapplied the Friars Balsam. They dried up within about 3 days. I would still recommend a vet visit to be certain though. If you google hotspots, there is a good bit of information out there. Good luck

Recently I attended an information night given by the company that put out Fronline. It was extremely interesting, and a lot was learned. I always thought that the products like Frontline (which I have never used), was supposed to kill fleas and keep them off the animal. This is not the case. The product is designed to kill the adult flea on contact with the animal usually within 24 hours after application ( speaking particularly about the pippette application here - needs time to circulate over the dogs body). It does NOT prevent fleas from coming on to the dog. Therefore as others have said, if you have fleas in the environment, then your dog will get more fleas on it. Depending on how bad your infestation is, will depend on how many fleas will keep coming back onto the dog. It is necessary to treat the environment. Here is the kicker though! Flea larvae can stay buried in the ground a considerable way down, so when you spray with pesticide, unless the product gets down to where the lavae is it will not affect it. Also, if in the case of a house that has been empty for some time, but sprayed to treat for fleas, as soon as you move in the flea larvae detect the movement and heat etc and will hatch out giving you a new infestation. Flea larvae can remain dormant for up to six months before hatching out if they so choose. From the time a flea hatches, it is usually on its host within 1 second - feeding within a minute - breeding within 8 hours - laying eggs within 24 hours - the female lays 50 eggs a day. The eggs are like polished rice, and as the animal walks around they are falling off into the environment and starting the process all over again. If you have neighbours with animals, wildlife coming into or near your yard, you will continually get flea eggs being dropped in your environment. If a flea lives on your dog for say 48hours, it cannot survive on another host - it is reliant on that one animal to feed otherwise it dies. Frontline (and I am not here to sell it to anyone - I get no benefit from that. This is just info), has a product in it that kills the adult flea, and another product that sterilises the eggs. Basically, the theory is that you have to keep up the good fight all year round otherwise you end up with such a big infestation it is near impossible to get on top of it. Of all the products that I am aware of, Advantix is the one to be careful of if you have a cat because it can kill your cat very quickly. I know that the information night I attended was to specifically promote the Revolution and Frontline products but the information was extremely interesting. Good luck to everyone - Keep up the good fight! We can't let the little buggers get the better of us! Makes you wonder if we shouldn't be doing as was done years ago, and just use a dip of some description, and use the same stuff to spray the environment as well. Cheers

I used Leo ear cleaner for years too, and never had any ear problems with my dogs ears during this time ( over 7 year period). I used it after every bath, which was probably every 3 or 4 weeks, and if ever I thought the dogs ears seemed a bit smelly. Since not being able to get it my older dog has had regular ear problems. The closest thing I have been able to get to Leo is the Aristopet ear cleaner.