Yeasty Bully Antiseptic Hot Spot Spray

A hot spot is the fastest-moving skin problem I see. Owners describe the same thing every time: nothing there last night, and by the evening a wet, red, hairless patch the size of a coaster that she will not leave alone. It is not an infection that crept in over weeks. It is an itch, a few minutes of determined licking and chewing, and a surface that has been rubbed open and promptly colonized.

That makes it a kitchen fire rather than a leaking pipe. A leak you schedule a plumber for. A fire you deal with now, with the thing you keep on the wall for exactly this moment, because the difference between acting in the first hour and acting tomorrow is the difference between a coin-sized patch and half a flank. This bottle is the one that lives on the wall.

It pairs chlorhexidine for the bacterial side with ketoconazole for the yeast, the two that travel together on bulldog skin, sprayed on without bathing, which matters when the spot is sore enough that a bath is out of the question and the dog is 55 pounds of objection anyway. It also earns its place in two other situations: the bulldog who genuinely cannot be bathed, and the days in between medicated baths when you want something working on the skin but the tub is not happening.

If possible carefully clip or part the hair around the patch so air can reach it, spray the area and let it dry, and keep her from licking it while it does. Use a buster collar to prevent self trauma.  Keep using it as the skin settles rather than stopping the moment it looks better, since the surface closes well before the skin underneath has finished. If the patch is spreading quickly, smells strongly, is painful to touch, or she is systemically unwell, your own veterinarian should see it: some of these need prescription treatment and a cone, not a spray alone.

Sprays like this one are commonly used alongside that prescribed treatment rather than in place of it, and the call on how to treat is your veterinarian’s.

Not sure if this is the right one?

For the whole-dog version of the same problem, the Yeasty Bully Antiseptic Shampoo is the weekly workhorse. If the itch is the issue and the skin is not yet broken, the Itchy Bully Medicated Spray with its numbing and oatmeal action is the better first reach. Owners with an itchy bulldog usually want the calming spray and the antiseptic spray side by side, which is cheaper as a V4B bundle.

Important: this page is educational and is not a diagnosis or a treatment plan for your own bulldog. Hot spots are a symptom, usually of an allergy or a flea or a fold underneath, so a dog who keeps producing them deserves a look from your veterinarian.