NeylasMom

Correct. Consider me officially an Apoquel fan. With a few momentary exceptions, Skye hasn't even glanced at her hoohaa. Maybe the cold laser helped as well. All I know is the inflatable collar and panties arrived and I haven't even opened the box yet. Hopeful we're on the right track.

I gotta say I'm wishing I had pressed the vet to do a scraping and culture. I asked about doing that for Skye's vulva, but by the time we got to Z and she seemed so unconcerned and didn't even feel strongly about doing oral ABs I stupidly forgot about it. I was hoping for more reduction in swelling by this morning with 2 doses of ABs in him, but at least it's not worse. We'll see where we get with the Epsom soaks today.

I've done that in the past, but really wanted a full on soak. We're trying to hit this thing hard. If we're not successful with our second try or as we see some improvement I will probably go that route. I think I just had too much water in the bag.

Thanks. The Ziploc bag didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Lots of water everywhere. Will try putting less in next time.

Was thinking (as I lie here in bed unable to sleep wondering if Zuri's paw will be less swollen when we get up ) that Epsom salt soaks might be a good idea. What say ye? Good idea for a potentially infected toe wound? I also read a suggestion for an iodine soak. Not sure which would be better. If we do the salts, does anyone know the best ratio to use? And do you need to rinse the paw afterward (or would wiping with a damp cloth suffice)? Thanks!

Maybe what they can claim based on efficacy studies done so far? Though the website does mention relieving inflammation in addition to itching. Violet was prescribed Apoquel when her face swelled up for some unknown reason and it brought the swelling down quite quickly. I'm certainly willing to give it a shot. Chlorhex is a good idea. I've been cleaning Zuri's toe with that - not sure why I didn't think of it for her.

Thanks, will try that. It doesn't seem like it's the end of the nail rubbing - I've dremeled to make sure it's super smooth, but maybe when he steps certain ways - but it seems odd just the side of the nail pressing would do it. I guess it could if there was already a wound and friction kept irritating it.

Oh duh, I forgot about the muzzle with poop guard. Not ideal as he hasn't worn a muzzle in ages and will probably try relentlessly to remove it, but if we need it for short periods so it can air out or maybe overnight we can use one. Lukasmom, was the one you were dealing with from a nail like this? Did you find a way to keep it from rubbing?

Sigh. The wound wasn't healing because the adjacent nail just keeps rubbing so I had our massage therapist cold laser the wound Tuesday and made an appt to have it lasered again today since I had to take Skye in anyway. I wake up this morning and Zuri's 2 outer toes are HUGE! So I called the office to warn them the vet would have to see him too. She gave me a Chinese herb paste called golden yellow and I insisted on oral ABs, which I started as soon as we got home. If anything the swelling looks worse now, but dose one of golden yellow and/or the cold lasering has dried the actual wound nicely. He'll get his second dose of ABs before bed even though that's a bit early. I'm so frustrated and overly anxious. We can't have anything serious with any toes that aren't on his cancer leg so I need this to heal and return to normal yesterday. And once the swelling is down, I'm still not sure how to keep the nail from rubbing and re-irritating it. The sock works nicely to keep him from licking, but he has scraggly paw pads so I'm realizing the sock gets sort of stuck and pushes the toes together. We may have to combine putting padding in between toes, wrapping with vet wrap a bit higher up and then putting the sock over. Just don't know if the padding will stay in place. Well if you made it this far, thanks for listening to my whining and any additional suggestions for a way to let the wound get air, keep him from licking, AND keep the toe from rubbing are welcome. Neither my vet nor I want to do an e-collar and the other types won't keep him from his foot. Not the best photo, but where oh where have Zuri's toes gone?

I love my vet. So wish we could have just seen her the last time. She feels pretty confident it's an external infection from all of the irritation. Apparently her vulva isn't completely normally shaped so easy for stuff to get "trapped" in there. I asked her about swabbing and culturing, but she felt pretty strongly oral ABs weren't necessary, just keeping her on the Vetriscience UT supplement to prevent the infection traveling up into her urinary tract. So, Silver sulfablahblah topically instead of Neosporin and we're going to use Apoquel rather than Rimadyl to bring down the inflammation, which I am much more comfortable with. They also cold lasered her while we were there. And the collar should be here tomorrow to keep her from licking it.

Thanks, I was wondering about that. Mine is really old so I'll ask the vet. They did run a u/a and didn't say it was abnormal, but this was my vet's original theory I think so we can revisit it. I do have pH strips so I could check with those as well. One thing we had some success with early on (I think) was the Vetriscience UT strength stat supplement and one thing I suspect is that it changes the pH. When she started licking more again I tried to get her on those but she'd become so fussy after me trying to get the ABs in her that she wouldn't take them. I attempted again recently and most evenings she will eat one so maybe those will help. ETA: Oh, first round of ABs, that I thought didn't do anything, but this was much earlier in was Clavamox. She started vomiting from that toward the last few days so this time they tried Cephalexin. The thing about the possibility of it just being urine pH is that she didn't have this problem for years and then it came out of nowhere. The l-theanine was the only thing I could think that caused a change, but she's been off that since we saw the vet so 3 weeks ago.

We are going back to the vet tomorrow. If anyone has any suggestions for things for me to ask her, please share. I'm feeling really frustrated and pretty much like a crappy dog mom at this point and expecting to feel worse after our visit tomorrow. I don't really know if the vet will have anything new to offer, but I will feel better hearing things from my regular vet rather than the one we saw last time when she was out of town. I'm honestly a bit confused how there can be bacteria, WBC and RBC on the urinalysis and nothing can grow on culture. The presumption was the infection was external from her irritating it and not from a UTI so nothing grew on culture because there was only a tiny amount of bacteria from the pee passing by the infected outer area? And she was on the ABs for at least 10 days - would bacteria from her working on it really not clear up in that timeframe? We did see a lot of improvement while she was on them so presumably they were effective for whatever bacteria was there. I hate the idea of putting her back on ABs - I had to resort to pilling her by the end and had to be careful about administering after giving her food or she would throw up, plus just general concern about overuse of ABs - but of course will do it if she needs it. The collar and washable diaper are on their way from Amazon in the meantime. Will figure out which is less aversive for Skye and use one or the other to keep her from licking completely for a while. We are still doing baby wipes and Neosporin as well. Oh, Greysmom, thanks for the spray Neosporin suggestion - that has been helpful at least although I'm starting to wonder now if it's keeping the area too damp. I don't know.

Likely lots of factors at play, but what I always tell clients is that frustration is on the sliding scale to aggression. That's how a lot of leash reactivity develops with otherwise social dogs. Did your trainer give you a behavior modification plan using counter-conditioning and desensitization for his triggers?

Veterinary opthamologist. My vet refers automatically for most skin and eye issues because she know she doesn't have the depth of knowledge the specialists do.

Ugh. We were making good progress, the area was looking a lot better and now it's worse again. Culture was negative. We almost finished out her ABs anyway, but she missed the last couple of days because she got so finicky about taking them. I guess it's time for a bite not collar.

I can't believe there are veterinarians still doing this surgery. But very glad he found his way to you. I agree with the other suggestions to explore the possibility of laryngeal paralysis. Congrats on your new family member!

My guess, abnormal routine and people absent, he was lonely or mildly anxious. May have jumped into your bed for reassurance (your smell) and made the startling discovery that all these years he's been sleeping on subpar surfaces. Kind of like countersurfing, it only takes one time for the dog to learn it's worth his while.

We have carpet so no help on that one here. Gratuitous if blurry pic of the patient wearing his sock. Wondering why I'm bugging him when he's sleeping.

Cloth tape is working, thanks all! He seems completely unphased by it so I don't even have to remove it for walks, etc.

Ha. I do get biweekly massages for my back, but they are more like torture than being relaxing. I did decide to stay home today and sleep in. Zuri is still in bed. I guess he was too tired to tank up on water last night so I can't complain. Also, his sock stayed on overnight! Small victories.

It was a tiring day for mom, and I think Z as well, but yes, good news overall. Certainly stable kidney values for 4 weeks is great news! And being in a place where we're able to delay a pain treatment is also great. I would like to get this drinking under control. Now debating when/if to try for the sterile draw again. All I know right now is not tomorrow. Tomorrow Z gets his massage and then we both get to chill.

So I got the socks. Put one on, vet wrapped above. Zuri collapsed onto the floor, I kid you not. He's always done this nutty thing where he freaks and will fall down if something is wrong with a foot - the first time it happened he had a sand burr in his paw at Dewey and I thought he was having a seizure. I guess the way I had it wrapped sent a weird sensation because of his LS so off it came. At the moment he's just wearing the sock, which is good enough to deter him when he's napping. We'll try a little cloth tape for bed time. That would be better than using up a bunch of vet wrap anyway. Wish us luck that there are no more fainting incidents.

Oncologist agrees kidneys seem to be pretty stable for the moment, but he has been tanking up on water and his urine smells strong. His U/A results 2 weeks ago didn't indicate an infection but we're doing a sterile urine draw and culture to be absolutely sure. I'm pretty sure it's just his stress drinking/peeing like he had in 2015, but since I can't identify a cause I want to make sure we're not missing something. Going to wait on Zoledronate since he doesn't seem to need it just yet and she felt it would be better for his kidneys to wait so we'll reschedule in a week or two depending on how he's doing. Waiting for them to do the culture. They have to do the upside down thing like they do for ultrasounds, which he is not a fan of so I'm of course anxious and feeling guilty. ETA: And they couldn't get a sample so we'll have to try with our regular vet at another time.

Thanks. That's so great to hear about Cecil. That's what I say about Z - he has a little hiccup in his giddyup, but doesn't seem to bother him. And honestly it's barely noticeable these days. So creatinine was the same, BUN was up a little bit again, from 47 to 51 this time, but to be honest, it's hot as heck here and he's been panting a lot today. So I don't know. I'm waiting for the oncologist to call me back, but we need to leave right now for his treatment if we're doing it today. Since he's not more psinful we could probably wait regardless, but it's hard to know whether it's doing something we don't know about where we'd want to do it regardless. If that makes any sense. Regardless, no major changes in blood work is good news to me!

Oh, I see, thanks! Will try this. Now to get baby socks. The sock suspender idea is interesting for sure, but this is a back foot so I don't think it would work.