Hi Guys, hope i am posting in the right place here, it is sort of food related........i think.

Anyway, we are now on our third week of raw feeding and it's going great, the dogs are happy, i am happy, hubby thinks it's disgusting but never mind he will get over it:rolleyes:

The question i have is this, Alfie my 2 year old gsd has suffered from hot spots in the past and the vet has treated them by trimming all the hair back and cleaning them up and putting steroid cream on them until they disappear, he hasn't had any for about 6 months now. So i was really surprised, well horrified really when i discovered he now has 3 huge wet yucky patches on his back, he got his first one last week so i trimmed it back, cleaned it up etc and now another 2 have developed, so i'm wondering if this has anything to do with me changing his diet to raw? I have read loads of books that briefly mention detox and the effects it can have on a small percentage of dogs but none go into great detail, i am currently reading Natural Nutrition For Dogs and Cats (which is brilliant by the way, only £2 for a second hand copy on amazon) and she touches on detox and mentions using apple cider vinegar on the coat? i'm not going to use it whilst he has open sores but when they eventually heal up should i, or are there any other supplements that might help his coat? I am currently adding easygreen to their food and will start adding keepers mix when the winter comes but i was wondering if any of you have dogs with similar problems that you have treated naturally. I don't want to have to use steroid cream on him as this kind of defeats the idea of doing things naturally but i obviously don't want him to be in any pain either........any suggestions?????

Have no expertise to offer from the feeding angle, but the one hot spot I've had on one of my dogs was easily cured by clipping hair away (very long coated dog) and drying up with the Vetzyme antiseptic powder you can buy at any pet store. This is the treatment recommended to me, and it worked very well and seemed to soothe too. Perhaps you could try this and avoid the nasty steroids?

Oh, and am fairly positive that above hot spot was from a red ant bite - I wonder if similar could be the problem with your boy?

M.

Hi Lily Mc

I hadn't really thought about an insect bite to be honest, i think that because of the timing i was thinking it might have something to do with diet. I've never tried the Vetzyme powder but am off to P&H this afternoon for new toys so will have a look while i am there........thanks

I have also found Vetzyme powder very good when treating hotspots the only thing I do different to M is I wash the area with hibiscrub first, dry carefully then put the powder on.

Oops, yes Gillian, I should have said about washing it too - although I used salt water.

M.

I have used Benzyl Benzoate to great effect on hot spots.

I have done too.  Works immediately without clipping the hair away.

Yep, dries it right up :)

I've had great success with Flowers of Sulphur :)

Interesting all the good results without Vets' drugs! ;)

I think this is classic hot spot time of year.  It is the combination of insects, humidity which are great for bacteria and fungal infections.