Hey, all! Been a long day for me, so here I am with an update and a response to each of you:
Bobby Dog, I know Sentinel Spectrum only kills flea eggs, not the adult fleas, but I thought, like Dori said, giving Bru a brushing and a bath fairly recently would have eliminated that issue? I mean, a stray flea could be there, which is why, as BCnut said, he could just be very sensitive to flea bites, which I think he has a history of, so this may be it, plus, like Dori suggested I may have scratched him too hard with the Furminator. I really need to be better with this thing and just do short sessions every 2 weeks or so instead of an intense one every 3-4 months… Maybe I will just start doing that, and keep it to one brushing per area. Quick, easy, gentle. I was just trying to not do it too often in the cold months so as to help him retain most of his undercoat as he may be cold, so I only was going to do one in the end of November and pick up when warm months come, as in probably in March-April. Maybe when I start brushing again, it could be every 2 weeks or so (that’s how often I do his nails too), and it won’t be terrible as it will be warm outside.
Tabitha, thank you for the info! I will certainly monitor Bruno, but so far he seems overall well internally – he had a checkup in September, all was well; he fares well on a rotational kibble diet with added canned/dehydrated/freeze-dried/air-dried foods and whole foods such as egg, sardines, coconut oil, yoghurt/kefir, RMBs. Stool is great, eating is great, I make sure he eats a lot of water with every meal (I feed his kibble and toppers with warm water as a soup), so that I try to increase his hydration. I also would try to use more natural remedies before I resort to medical (chemical) compounds in other stuff. I make my own shampoo of castille soap, coconut milk, and essential oils, and I, Brian, and Bruno use that, and I use the oil blend mentioned above for almost everything – body lotion, hair conditioning, dog coat conditioning, wound remedy, etc. Which is why I will definitely keep in mind the recommendations by Susan (thank you!) on the Malaseb shampoo and Cortisone cream, but I will hold off on them as long as I can to give a chance to the natural stuff to try and help. He hasn’t chewed at it today, and I was able to watch him all day. Spot looks fine, skin is ok, and there is no miraculous overnight hair re-growth, lol, but I am sure it will come back – the scrotum spot got all its hair back. 🙂
I will just watch him and play it by ear, and see how it goes. By no means will I let him suffer (if he displays any signs of it, like excessive chewing, redness, etc.), but for now, we may just be able to home-treat this. 🙂 I will certainly keep you posted.
Also, Susan, I am not Dori, but Sentinel is a tablet that prevents all worms: heartworm, hookworm, roundworm, tapeworm, whipworm, and controls flea populations by killing the eggs (not the adult fleas though). It works pretty well I think, and if they sell it in Australia, you can look into it, but I don’t think they make it for cats. http://sentinelpet.com/
