My dog has a hot spot and I don't want to put a damn cone on him. Advice?

[k9bfriender]

@Leo_Bloom

Golden retriever, meaning they get them all the time and by now I’m familiar with them.

For those who don’t know, a hot spot its when some irritation–a bit of sand, or whatever*–gets itched at by the dog, and eventually the hair gets pulled out a little and the skin starts to become scratched and red and abraded.

A really bad, unattended-to large hot spot can be a real vet situation, when it suppurates and he might even need some antibiotics. This is by no means that.

What I do is put a little Bond’s Medicated Salve and powder on the thing–my breeder also mentioned that black schmear that football players wear on their cheek against the sun–and easy peasy. But they still want to scratch/bite where it itches.

This one’s right at the base of his penis, and I’ll watch hime when I can. I can’t think what else to do besides getting out the Hateful Cone of Shame. Any ideas?
*Or, naturally, which my wife without evidence insists, when one’s husband was terribly terribly careless and nicked his flesh while cutting off a hard mat of hair the other day.

I like this stuff, for minor hot spots. My dog sometimes gets obsessive over mosquito bites, and this helps relive minor inflammation.

Benadryl usually just makes them tired, but also sometimes cranky. I prefer loratadine, though it is a bit hard to dose, as it is about 1mg per 10 lbs, and the pills generally come in 10mg. That is what I have given my dog for her seasonal allergies.

As far as a nick, it’s not that hard to do. I’ve seen some pretty serious wounds inflicted on dogs by owners trying to remove mats, but even a small scrape that you don’t notice is something that he will notice on such a sensitive area.