More toenail troubles...

[conuly]

Not mine this time - Finn's. He lost a toenail. WOULD NOT STOP LICKING HIS FOOT, we had to put the cone on.

This may be exacerbated by the fact that this is the foot he licks too much anyway. We've been doing a wait and watch approach, but so long as he can be redirected (or at least stops when we tuck his feet under a blanket) we haven't been too worried.

The vet said that there's no point poking around there when the obvious acute problem is the missing toenail but suggested that it might be allergies and we could try half a zyrtec or a benadryl every day, and if there's no improvement in a few weeks, after the toenail comes back, we can come in to get it properly checked out. In the meantime, he got an antibiotic just in case.

Poor Finn was terrified in her office waiting for her! He eventually ended up trying to climb on my shoulders. I'd say I don't know what his plan was, but clearly there was no plan, just blind panic. I had wanted the vet to actually see him limping, but of course he wasn't when she came in, which apparently is pretty typical - they work themselves up with fear and then all that adrenaline means that they superficially look a lot better than they really are. No limping.

Comments

[wpadmirer]

Poor Finn!

[conuly]

He was doing okay today, had even largely stopped limping... and then he tripped against the roomba, slathered up the inside of his cone, and we had to take it off so he could lick me instead. (With his feet firmly hidden in a towel.)

[readerjane]

Poor doggie.

Hub and Son cooperate each evening to give our cat Caspian a 5mg Zyrtec. He is not resigned to the dose yet. It does keep his eyes from running, though.

[hudebnik]

One of our greyhounds lost a toenail in June. We were on a road trip at the time, and it didn't seem life-threatening, so we didn't get her to the vet until we got home a few days later. There was some redness at the site, but not enough to warrant a course of antibiotics. The doctor suggested that she was probably going to lick it whatever we did, so the best thing we could do to prevent infection was brush her teeth.

[pwcorgigirl]

Our Lily Dog, who is allergic to everything short of oxygen, finds relief from itchy feet when we wash her feet with Douxo Chlorhexidine PS Shampoo, which is antibacterial, antifungal, antiyeast and really good at getting the pollen out of the creases of her toes. It also leaves behind a not-great-taste, so she'll leave things alone for a while.

[conuly]

Thanks for the rec.