Hot Spots

[Lypse1.8T]

Hello! I have an 8 year old Golden Retriever. He's gotten a few hot spots in the past, but nothing horrible....until about a month ago. Seems like for the past month he has constant hot spots. We will get one healed up and then another one comes along. He is always biting/chewing at himself. He takes Comfortis for fleas, but I checked him anyways and didn't see any fleas.
We took him to the vet a couple weeks ago and they gave us some steroid/antibiotic spray to treat the hot spots. The problem is not treating the hot spots, we can do that just fine. The problem is he keeps getting them and I don't know what else to do. He has another appointment this afternoon and I'm hoping they'll do some allergy testing or something. When he is not with us, we have to keep him in an Elizabethan collar or else he would chew himself raw! I don't want him to be miserable and itchy all the time.
Like I said, we are taking him back to the vet this afternoon, just wanted to see if anybody else has dealt with anything like this.

[STOICH]

Are they just superficial when they appear?

Either way, you might want to look into identifying possible allergies if this is a persistent issue. This is provided the pup has been free of flee, ticks, mites, etc for a while now.

[Lypse1.8T]

Thanks for the advice. The vet took some of his blood for allergy testing. He said the results will be back in one week, so we shall see!
In the meantime, the vet gave him antibiotics and steroids. I can already tell the steroids are helping with the itching.

[Lypse1.8T]

Well, turns out he's allergic to pretty much everything (grass, trees, weeds, etc.). Vet wants to put him on allergy shots which will cost $100/month. That seems a little over the top for the price. I have a couple other friends whose dogs get allergy shots and they are nowhere near that expensive. I'm going to get a print out of his allergy test and see if I can get the shots made somewhere else for a little cheaper.
Anyone else's dog take allergy shots? If so, how much do you pay for them?

[Brad2021hk]

From my experience with a German Shepherd rescue group, a lot of hot spots can be related to food. General dog foods have a lot of ingredients and "stuff" in them. It may be worth trying a Limited Ingredient Diet (LID) food. See if things change or improve. May be worth trying before going with the very expensive and long term allergy shot program.

[sakigt]

Have you noticed its a seasonal thing? If it is maybe you could get away with using an antihistamine like Benadryl.