Dog skin issue

Vets, I just noticed that my German Shepherd has a few swollen, damaged spots on his side of body and near his tail. Is this something concerning or emergency? Is there any OTC medicine for him? I did apply some triple action antibiotics ointment on the wounds. He is 7 years old, eats and behaves normal. Thanks a lot!

Hello - I strongly feel that if antibiotics are needed, they ought to be prescribed by a vet.  There are good reasons for this - here goes:  1)  There are normal, commensal ('on the skin') bacteria that live on the skin all the time; these have a function, which is stopping the more unusual ('bad') bacteria from getting a hold.  Killing the local commensal bacterial population off using antibiotic creams lying around at home can leave any more unusual, resistant microbes (the sort not killed easily with the cream) to flourish.  This is dangerous.  Furthermore, the skin here looks to be broken and exposed and I'll wager that it's painful; it may require pain releif ASAP to prevent futher pet-attention; we all tend to mess with painful skin wounds.  Of course, 'messing' can introduce infection where there may be absolutely no problematic infection at this time, so pain releif is important.  Thirdly, it is all very well killing off any bacteria sitting on the surface, but the more important question here may be:  why is the skin broken in this way?  It doesn't happen on its own; was there trauma, or licking - and if so - why?  Was it secondary to pain?  Infection?  Skin cancer?  Parasites?  An anal gland abcess bursting out?  A bite (bites carry nasty bacteria, too deep to touch with cream)?  - the treatments for these different possible causes are poles apart and your vet will want to get started with the correct one. I am not sure where-abouts this wound is on the patient as at this time and furthermore, I know nothing of them.  Bathing with boiled, cooled water is good first aid - but if the area is painful (and why wouldn't it be?) pain releif may be ethical first; many a good, friendly dog has turned and bitten someone touching a wound so potentially painful as that, through no fault of their own.  We would therefore reccommend seeking triage by an emergency vet before attempting to treat.   Please will you let us know a) where abouts on the dog the wound is - just for interest and b) how you get on with this case?

Thank you.