I’ve had good experiences withthese things.
If you feel bad for the dog, you and he both could wear the cone, so that he doesn’t feel alone. Probably appropriate considering you gave him the irritation spot in the first place.
OP update. Done and gone. Wound up using “triple ointment.” Is that a generic thing for “super-duper?” My local pharmacist, a dog-owner, had me spread-eagle the pooch for his opinion.
As for the itch/scritch overlay he gave me a new product, apparently, Gold Bond’s straight-up 4% lidocaine. I looked at all the others, including the tooth-pain ones, and they all had menthol–which for all I know would’ve been a further deterrent, a la the bitter apple idea above.
Basically I’m bumping this to add something my/his trainer told me just now when I told her about it: on the rare occasions she saw the beginning of a hot spot she put vinegar (cider vinegar?) on it at first and then kept an eye on it. She said something about bacterial vs. fungal infections, and their different treatments. Or else she was talking about my recent dog punctures, the fascinating saga of which lies elsewhere in IMHO.
What was most interesting in her vinegar topic: she is a horse owner and trainer, and told me that “they” sometimes put a mess o’ sauerkraut on a similar type of scritch case, not just vinegar, so they can bandage it up and let the the thing pickle.
FWIW.