Dog skin problem~help!?

[anniech22]

I think my dog has a pimple but am worried it's more than that- i took him to the vet last week and the Dr said the spot that is now pussy-was an allergic reaction to things blowing in the wind...I took him in thinking they were hot spots. Does anyone have a guess what it is? I was also wondering how I would know if a tick had gotten through his skin?
I hopefully attached a picture-

[jassy3399]

I wish I could be more helpful, but the attached pictures are a bit dark and blurry. As far as a tick in concerned, you would generally see the body of it, since they tend to only bury their heads. And if the dog had scratched at where a tick was, detaching body from head, then the head left in the skin would be a dark, almost black spot in the middle of the sore, and the body will eventually work it out. If it WAS a tick, you should see about getting a lyme's vaccine (you might want to anyway) just to be on the safe side.

I'm not totally clear on the puss part -- was it puss-y when the vet looked at it, or was it just a pimple at that time, and the puss is recent? if so, I would take your dog back in and have the spot rechecked. It might also be worth considering a second opinion on the allergy part. My dog Remington has quite a few allergies that never resulted in a single, localized pimple/sore, but tend involve all over scratching/biting with raw, discolored skin as a result. He HAS had a couple of pimples that were just that, pimples. Hair follicles that got blocked and a bit swollen, with a thick white substance that could be squeezed out. They healed rapidly, with no intervention on my part.

Good luck!

[im_nomad]

I posted about a similar problem here http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=64443

These spots also started as what looked / felt like pimples or chicken pox blisters, which would erupt, ooze and then crust over. These plagued my dog for an entire summer or longer, spread all over her chest and parts of her back, and parts of her fur started to come out. Her skin would literally lurch away from me if I touched her and if I scratched her near these, she would grind her teeth. She took at least two courses of antibiotics, steroids, special baths etc. We never did figure out what was causing it, but the vet said it was a reaction to something, possibly bug bites. And then later, into the fall, after more antibiotics, something finally took and it went away.

My vet didn't want to do a skin scraping because my dog is so anxious during vet visits (she's 13 pounds and it takes at least two people to hold her), and would have required sedation, which she didn't want to do unecessarily due to her age.

[hazelrunpack]

It doesn't look like a tick bite to me, aniech22. In our dogs, at least, a tick bite is pinker, more like a smooth lump, and drier than what I can see in your pics. So likely it's some sort of localized infection. If it's changed (developed pus) or you see more of them, you might want to at least call your vet clinic and see if another visit is in order.

And welcome to the board, btw!