Wound on dogs head

[dizzyupthegirl86]

Hi all,
A couple of weeks ago, I felt a little lump on my dogs head, I scratched it thinking it was something stuck in her fur, and it bled a little. Only a small amount on the fur rather than dripping, and she didn’t seem bothered at all - I feel terrible about it, but that’s what it came from…At some point she caught it and it bled a bit more, scabbed over.

I asked the vet to take a look at it last week, they said it was a hotspot, but didn’t seem concerned at all. She worm/flea treated, but has a habit of rolling onto her back and itching herself on the carpet, and licks her paws, so they’ve given a course of steroid tablets, a medicated shampoo to wash her every other day and I’m going back next week.
In the meantime, on Wednesday she’s caught the scab AGAIN, it’s half come off and bled a fair bit more underneath. This morning I’ve woken up and it’s come off completely and looks a bit fresh underneath but no blood. I’ve attached a photo, it’s about the size of a 5p piece now.
She’s not quite able to reach it with her paws but when she rolls around she’s catching it.

Should I just leave it and hope she doesn’t catch it again, and see what the vets says on our follow up on Tuesday, or should I try to cover it up / stop her getting to it?
I put a small piece of gauze on it and micropore the other day and she just kept rolling around to get it off, which caused more damage. I’ve now bought vetrap but I’ve not used it yet (not fully sure how to use it because of where it is on her head) and an inflatable collar instead of a cone. She doesn’t settle at all with the collar but I’ll persevere with that if I need to.
Does anyone have any ideas of what might help please? My instinct is to protect it but that seems to bother her more than the actual wound, so counter productive!

It needs looking again again, and possibly removing.
It doesn’t look like a hot spot to me from that photo.

Thanks - there’s nothing really to ‘remove’ now as she’s knocked the scab off. I have a feeling the scab was bothering her more, but what’s left now is basically open. It’s not bleeding openly but I I touched it with a tissue and there’s blood on the tissue. This is the cleanest it’s looked for a while… I might bathe it with saltwater today and keep an eye on it.

Salt water is good, but it will scab over again.
Definitely get it looked at while you’re there.

Yes, I absolutely will 100% - if we didn’t have a follow up appointment on Tuesday, I’d be booking one! But she’s still on this course of steroid tablets, which they said would treat any infection… so I’m guessing they’d say either leave it open but keep it clean, or cover it up. Covering it up bothers her more though!

Steroids don’t treat infection, it’s antibiotics for that.
Yes, clean with salt water but be gentle as you don’t want to remove the healing cells.

I’ve had another look at it, there’s some white/yellowy marks that I can see there now that I couldn’t before. It’s not weeping or anything but I might give the vets a call just in case it’s infected….

I would get it checked with the vet again, as she may need antibiotics.

If the vet is happy there’s no infection, I would clean it a couple of times a day with Leucillin and pat dry with a soft, sterile gauze. This is what worked when one of my old dogs developed a hot spot on her cheek. We used it on the advice of our vet at the time.

I always keep some in now, as it’s great for just about any skin cut/graze/wound and can be used on both people and dogs. More recently I used it on a wound on my dog’s foot. (He has spinal issues where he sometimes knuckles over and had dragged it across the patio while running.) It healed it up really well.

I second using Leucillin - we also use it if our cat gets any ticks that he brings in before the treatment gets to them and they fall off, great for keeping wounds clean.

I'm sure it will be fine, but good to get a vet opinion on the possible infection

Thank you, will definitely look at that. I’ve spoken to the vets and got an appointment tomorrow morning. If it’s infected, I’d rather get ahead of it than wait another four days til our appointment.