My dog has a large scab with pus. What should I do for infection?

Thank you for submitting your question regarding R. I recommend that he sees his veterinarian. If there is pus coming out from under the scabs, this typically indicates an infection. He will likely need to be treated with an oral antibiotic and/or a medicated shampoo. This is likely a result of his allergic skin, but can have another cause. I hope this information helps!

Tasha needs to visit her veterinarian in order to treat this properly. She has an abscess or deep pocket of infection that needs to be properly flushed out and then she will require a prescription antibiotic that she will take for 1-2 weeks to treat the infection. It is also important that the veterinarian examine her teeth as this is a common site for an abscessed tooth to be the underlying cause of the abscess. It is possible that she may need a tooth extraction or other dental work. Treating this with peroxide alone is not going to clear up the infection. Please see your regular veterinarian ASAP. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

This presentation could be due to a localized spot of skin infection (likely to be caused by bacteria). A check up, appropriate disinfection and eventually antibiotics (oral, topical or in a shampoo formulation) are needed to solve the problem. Disinfection can eventually be started at home with very diluted hibiscrub or betadine or salted water baths. Buster collar may be useful as well to avoid licking. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

Poor guy. You can clean this area with Betadine diluted 50:50 with warm water for now. This will help reduce some of the bacteria and help with some of the irritation/redness. I would not recommend any topical ointments on this area however. However, organic honey can be placed in small amounts on wounds like this However, if there is pus as you say, the infection is dep under the skin and requires oral antibiotics to treat effectively. Therefore, it is best to schedule an appt with your vet soon for further care/treatment. I hope that your fur baby Chicku is able to resolve this deep skin infection soon. Best wishes and take care.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. It is difficult to say for sure what the cause is as there is a lot of matted fur and crusted material over the area. I do see the green pus you are referring to, which to me tells me that there is likely an infection going on. This may be due to a resistant bacterial infection, which may explain why it has not been responding to treatment. If you have already been giving antibiotics and the area is not improving, it may be time to culture the area to determine what the causative bacterium is so that the most appropriate antibiotic can be used. If you are able to, I would shave all the hair away from this area so that you can get this area clean and keep it that way. I would use betadine and dilute that in saline so that you have a light brown solution to help disinfect the area several times per day. There is a product which you can purchase online that may help called vetericyn. I hope this helps and hope this problem resolves soon! Please let me know if you have any further questions / concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

It sounds like this is likely to be a cyst of some kind, but could also be an abscess, localized skin infection or some other type of skin growth - pus from an abscess would usually have an odor to it, but not always. You can clean the area thoroughly with warm water and soap, and it's fine to use topical antibiotic ointment like Neosporin as well. But in order to find out for sure what it is and get it treated more effectively, you will need to take your dog to a vet for an exam. He/she can take a sample of the white substance for analysis to help determine what it is, and will advise you based on the results whether it needs to be treated with oral antibiotics or other medication, or if it needs to be surgically removed.

It is hard for me to tell 100% from those pictures but it looks like that could be a sebaceous growth that had ruptured or an infected lesion. You can try to clip some of the hair away from the area and gently clean the area. A small amount of triple antibiotic ointment may be applied. However, if this area is not resolving in the next few days you will want to see a veterinarian to make sure oral medication is not needed.