(Side note- I've been writing at Starbucks and they have been having power outages all day with random bursts from the fire alarm. So we got kicked outside haha. At least I got my coffee first! And now the fire department is here.)
Anyway, so in addition to Riko's allergies, back in January he hurt his leg. He jumped the garden fence at my mom's house, punctured himself, and tore a muscle. All about 5 days before he had a flight to Hawaii.
Feel free to reminisce on those posts here....http://firsttimehw.blogspot.com/2015/02/rikos-update-on-hawaii.html
http://firsttimehw.blogspot.com/2015/02/rikos-hawaiian-time-part-2-and-tidbits.html
So Riko's leg is better but it still gives him trouble. He is able to go to the dog park and run and play, but afterwards he gets a bit sore. He also tends to be sore walking around on our tile. We continue to do stretches and I massage it and as of today I have him back on his muscular supplement. (It is supposed to help repair muscle damage. I had forgotten about it because I couldn't get him to eat it, and then he stopped wanting his food altogether.)
But! Turns out he likes it in peanut butter. I have another product on the way that I am going to try just for maintenance- its supposed to help aches and pains and lubricate joints. (Now that he is almost 8 and has had this problem come up, I'd like to help him out the best I can) It is also aspirin free. So yay for not poisoning my dog.
I'm going to give this product a try and we will see how it goes. More on that later.
So! He's been back to itching and chewing at his feet lately. His feet were starting to get that nasty "frito" feet smell, which indicates a yeast infection. Given that we live in such a humid place and dogs only sweat between their pads, this makes sense. I've been giving him yogurt, restricting treats, and trying to keep his feet clean. Upon further research, I found out that soaking them in a mixture of white vinegar, peroxide, and water would be helpful.
Now have you actually really looked at your dogs pads before? I've noticed that they looked a little rough, but oh my lord. They are yellow and have this spiny rough texture to them = definite fungal issues. I'm sure walking on hot pavement during the day hasn't helped.
Well as of yesterday, he got to chewing on his feet, and I noticed that he was limping. I checked out his paws and the front one has a big abrasion- the first layer of the pad is starting to peel back and underneath is this exposed raw skin. Ouuuuuch!
This one is the worst one. Look at how it has started to peel.
The worst part, is his feet were starting to clear up from being soaked, and the most damage done was self inflicted. I don't want to soak that bad foot because I have a feeling it would hurt like a bi***. I was putting neosporin on him and covering it with sock, and started researching other remedies.
You know me. I love alternative therapies....I'll have to do a post about my elderly cat's routine soon.
I'm reading up on the power of coconut oil. Apparently it has all powerful qualities- boosts your immune system, boosts metabolism, healthy fats, does wonders for your skin and hair, lubricates joints, and fights fungus and yeast. I've recently started putting it on the ends of my hair and it looks great.
The article I was reading suggested putting it in your dogs food (1/2 tsp a day to start off. Otherwise they will get major diarrhea.) in order to reap all of these health benefits. So the pets are going to start it and we will see if there are any effects! I'm also going to start cooking with it too. It also suggested using it topically- so I rubbed it all over Riko's pads. My hopes is that it will get in there and kill off some yeast, moisten these poor dry and cracked pads, and get things turned back around.
Another added benefit is that if they lick it, it won't hurt them. That can be quite risky with ointments and creams. And it makes their feet smell delicious.
Now Riko hates having his feet touched to begin with...He's super ticklish and can be a major cry baby. Which he was...it was a struggle at first but he finally gave up and let me help him out.
He's not pleased with me.
I'll update on the coconut oil experiment!
