Zack is now chewing the top of his tail; I can tell from his fur that he has been at it for awhile. There isn’t an open sore, but there is a scab under some matted fur. Does anyone know how to treat this? Is there a home remedy or is a trip to the vet required?

when Dixie was licking and chewing on one leg vet gave me some spray that I believe was called allerspray that tasted very yukky and also had aloe in it. As long as I kept it sprayed she left it alone until it healed. Don’t want it to turn into a hotspot. I will check the name again to make sure but there are different ones. When I used it on wildman sancho after he tore his pad he still licked it.

I know not too many of us are fans of ‘over the counter’ stuff, but this post reminded me of something I did with my beagle. She was a licker and a chewer, leaving red and raw spots on her body. There was this yellow stuff put out by Hartz and I believe it was called ‘Hot Spot’. It calmed the chewing instantly and allowed the sore spot to heal right up. I’m not even sure if they put it out anymore, but it cleared up many a hot spot on Sadie dog! 

It’s not something you should treat at home.

From the sounds of it, it’s a Hot Spot, and is usually caused by food allergies.

What are you feeding?

Usually, a dog will need a Cortisone cream from the Vet to treat those, because they can be painful and become infected quickly.

Check with your Vet about it, and maybe look into a different food!

I spoke to Carla on Fri, as quickly as Zack’s booboo came, it also went away. He is on the same holistic food that my dogs are on. It sounded like a bug bite to me, that he was itching & irritated ;-)