Oscar also had a vet visit on Saturday. He has had more than a normal amount of eye and skin irritations this fall.
He has been taking a low dose of an antihistamine and has some topical antibiotic ointment to apply, but he had one particular irritation on his face that was not healing properly. It looked much like a hot spot, and we had been treating it as one.
But since it is taking longer to heal, and there appears to be some thickening of the skin under and surrounding it, he has just started a course of oral antibiotics to help things along. The worst-case scenario would be that this is a skin tumor of some sort. We need to get the irritation and infection taken care of first, though.
His dose of antihistamine has also been upped to make him more comfortable until that spot, and his irritated eyelids, are completely healed. Much as they do for many people, the antihistamine has a side effect of drowsiness at this higher dose, so we won't be letting Oscar operate any heavy machinery for a while :)
Cephalexin is often prescribed for skin irritations; he is taking 1000mg twice daily. The antihistamine is hydroxyzine; he is taking 125mg twice daily. Hopefully this will clear things up. If not, the next step will be to consult a veterinary dermatologist or allergist.
I have the image now of Oscar in a hard hat driving construction equipment. *giggle*