Shoudn't Have Asked The Universe
Well, I shouldn't have asked the universe for the favor, because it either ignored me or decided I could handle more crap on my plate. Got home from yoga last night around 7:45 to find that Rusty's paws were much worse. He can barely walk. He is now putting all his weight on his broken paw (how much can the last remaining metacarpal take before it gives?) because the other paw has become very swollen and painful. It was oozing yellow puss (I know, great visual, but how else to describe). He brought a lot of that mess onto himself with his incessant licking, but I have to wonder if something else is afoot here (pun not intended).
I did my best to clean it up -- I was out of epsom salts so I used a little sea salt and very warm water to soak his paws for as long as he would let me (which was like 3 minutes each foot - not bad - he's actually very tolerant). Tried to clean them with hydrogen peroxide, which was tough because he really didn't like when I tried to gently get in between his toes/pads. Put lots of antibiotic ointment on them with a q-tip (which was also hard for him because I tried to get some of it in between), finally wrapped them up, loosely, in vet wrap (stretchy sticky gauzy wrap) and covered his paws with a pair of old socks. At some point during the night he pulled everything off (I knew he would), but I think he left them on for at least 3-4 hours. During the time I was awake. I got maybe 3.5 hours of sleep last night, so I am beat today (I have some nice-sized bags under my eyes). His paws didn't look much better in the morning. The only thing that maybe looked a little better was there was less puss. It was more red consistency what was coming out of his paws than yellow. So I hope I did some good with all that effort to clean them up.
Made an attempt to go to the vet this morning, but he didn't get in until 9:30, so the tech at the front at least got the OK from him to give me antibiotics for now, until this evening when we go in to see the doc. I wanted to get something into his system ASAP to help fight the infection. Poor guy, he was doing well, but now he's in a low spot. Makes me feel sad about getting old.
I did my best to clean it up -- I was out of epsom salts so I used a little sea salt and very warm water to soak his paws for as long as he would let me (which was like 3 minutes each foot - not bad - he's actually very tolerant). Tried to clean them with hydrogen peroxide, which was tough because he really didn't like when I tried to gently get in between his toes/pads. Put lots of antibiotic ointment on them with a q-tip (which was also hard for him because I tried to get some of it in between), finally wrapped them up, loosely, in vet wrap (stretchy sticky gauzy wrap) and covered his paws with a pair of old socks. At some point during the night he pulled everything off (I knew he would), but I think he left them on for at least 3-4 hours. During the time I was awake. I got maybe 3.5 hours of sleep last night, so I am beat today (I have some nice-sized bags under my eyes). His paws didn't look much better in the morning. The only thing that maybe looked a little better was there was less puss. It was more red consistency what was coming out of his paws than yellow. So I hope I did some good with all that effort to clean them up.
Made an attempt to go to the vet this morning, but he didn't get in until 9:30, so the tech at the front at least got the OK from him to give me antibiotics for now, until this evening when we go in to see the doc. I wanted to get something into his system ASAP to help fight the infection. Poor guy, he was doing well, but now he's in a low spot. Makes me feel sad about getting old.
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