Protecting Scarred Skin

[Guest MissAllisonG]

Hi everyone! First time poster here, though I've used the threads on Grey Talk since we adopted our beautiful boy Cole back in December. Cole has two fairly substantial scars from racing injuries that required surgery, one on his neck and one on his shoulder. The surgery that resulted in the larger scar on his shoulder was in November 2013. We've been dealing with allergies this spring and summer, which are mostly under control - but we've found the scarred skin is both itchier and more susceptible to getting scratched and even bloody. He scratched open his shoulder scar for the first time this week - not badly, but it happened.

 

I've seen recommendations for using vitamin E (breaking open the capsules and smearing it on the skin), coconut oil, and Bag Balm as topical solutions for keeping scars moisturized and more flexible - I'm fine using these on his neck, but he often licks his shoulder scar. Are any of these okay/not okay if ingested? Any other recommendations? He's on Zyrtec for allergies and we have a natural "hot spot" spray that has been helpful to keep him from scratching his neck that we'll start to use on his shoulder - but any other ideas would be most welcome! Thanks!

[KF_in_Georgia]

Vitamin E capsules and coconut oil are absolutely okay if ingested. Lots of dogs take one or the other orally to help prevent dry, flaky skin.

 

I"m pretty sure Bag Balm is okay, as well. People use it to soften paw pads, and dogs often lick the pads, so it hasn't been a problem.

 

But you might want to ask the vet whether something else would be better. I'm wondering of something like one of the Mederma products would be more helpful. You might want to print out an ingredients list and ask your vet about it.

[MaryJane]

Try Manuka honey.

[tbhounds]

Just wanted to mention to stay away from sunscreen containing zinc.

[Guest MissAllisonG]

thanks everyone! really appreciate the help.

[cleptogrey]

A good friend who has shown afghans told me that the Afghan people are always biting open their vit.e capsules and rubbing it into the bare spots on coats after felix ripped a good size patch of hair off his shoulder going through a dog door at her house. For the past 2 weeks I have been rubbing the vit.e into the bald spot. HAIR,fur what ever, it's growing! !. I bough the cheapest e I could find.

A good friend who has shown afghans told me that the Afghan people are always biting open their vit.e capsules and rubbing it into the bare spots on coats after felix ripped a good size patch of hair off his shoulder going through a dog door at her house. For the past 2 weeks I have been rubbing the vit.e into the bald spot. HAIR,fur what ever, it's growing! !. I bough the cheapest e I could find.

[gracegirl]

I'll be following this for our Airedale who just had two cancerous tumors removed....one from his neck, the other from his shoulder. Two large scars are left behind. I might try vitamin e as soon as the stitches come out.

Edited July 30, 2015 by gracegirl

[GeorgeofNE]

You might have more success with Dermacool spray from the vet. It has a bit of steroids in it. It stops the itching fast.

[racindog]

I would spray some Tuff-Foot http://tuffoot.com/ on it for ~ 2 weeks and see if that didn't toughen it up some. Its always going to be weaker than non-damaged skin. Tuff-Foot can be put into like a little make-up spray bottle and just sprayed on before he goes to sleep. It will stain while it is wet but it does toughen up skin as best as its going to get though. At least it worked good on Slim. And I checked the ingredients to make sure it wasn't nothing bad in it in case he licked it off which he never really did.

[cleptogrey]

You might have more success with Dermacool spray from the vet. It has a bit of steroids in it. It stops the itching fast.

sounds good to me.

[robinw]

Iker has a big scar, too, and it's also become flaky and a bit bloody this past summer. Bag Balm works wonders.