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How to help my dog with a painful open head sore before the vet?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Large (61lb +) | Male | neutered | 85 lbs

He looks like a Labrador mix with short legs and has an immensely dense off white coat maybe 8 or 9 yrs old. He has developed an open sore over the past two days on top of his head. We have been spraying it with Vetericyn wound and skin care which we got from our vet for previous sore. While gone our 4mo Gshepherd puppy made it worse. Our vet had no opening till tomorrow pm. He is beside himself with pain. How can we help him until tomorrow?

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

Answered By Andrea M. Brodie, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on May 21st, 2018

This looks very nasty. This likely is a bacterial dermatitis which needs to be seen urgently by a veterinarian. Unfortunately these tend to spread like wildfire, Maybe you could ask your vet to see you inbetween clients. If that is not possible, I suggest clipping as much hair off the wound and around it until you see healthy skin, You will be surprised that the sore is much bigger than it appears, Once you have done that, wash it with some chlorhexidine or wound wash available in your pharmacy or drugstore, Pat dry, and put some Neosporine ointment on the area, Unfortunately there are no OTC pain killers available for this kind of wound. Your dog will need to have another wound treatment at your vet and will need oral prescription antibiotics and possibly will be given an ointment. Do not put any ointment on the lesion tomorrow before you go to the vet so he can examine the skin properly.
Do not let your puppy lick this wound.
Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. Please take the time to mark this question as helpful or not as it helps us to improve on the quality of our answers to other pet owners. Thank you kindly!

1Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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