Holly Had A Bacterial Skin Infection

[Richard Crowe]

Holly began licking her front feet frequently. We shampooed her feet with our regular dog shampoo and the next day, we tried shampooing her front paws with T-Gel Shampoo which helps my scalp when it itches. That didn't help at all. When I arrived home from the health club about 2:00 PM yesterday (Saturday) she was frantically licking her feet. I gave her half of a generic Benadryl tablet and called the vet for an appointment. The vet is open until 4:00 PM on Saturday and we have a good enough relationship that they will slip any of our dogs in - even when they are busy.

It turned out that Holly had a bacterial skin infection. The vet gave her a shot to relieve the itching and an antibiotic shot as well as oral antibiotics and some topical ointment.

The vet said that there isn't a great chance that our Maltese will catch the infection. I am glad that I decided to bring Holly in before she began chewing her feet. Right now we have put the topical ointment on her paws and have given her a Bully Stick to chew so she won't lick off the ointment.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I am so glad. It is so hard when little children or our pets are hurting because they have no words to give us the needed information about where it hurts and what kind of hurt it is.

[Richard Crowe]

Hi Nancy and ned...

The anti biotics did their job and Holly is getting along just great. What a relief not to have my poor girl so uncomfortable.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Just saw this, Richard. I hope Holly is doing well.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Good to hear she seems better.

[Richard Crowe]

I have no idea except that she runs the fence in the back of our property (some other big neighbor dogs run the other side). We have about an acre and the back had been pretty muddy from sprinklers. She constantly gets her paws muddy as heck. She could have gotten a small nick in her pad from a stone or something and the bacteria entered that way. There was no sign of a wound of any type. The vet found out that it was bacterial by doing a scraping and viewing it under a microscope.

I am going to secure that area from Holly in case that was the cause. This is Sunday night and she has been on her meds for a little over 24 hours. They seem to have worked fine since she is no longer licking the paws.

[Debbie and Thomas]

Yeah- did the vet say how she could have gotten this? Is this the same as a staph infection?

[texanmom4]

Yes, I wonder how she ended up with that? I hope she is better soon!

[Heidi]

Wow, I wonder where how she got that? Hope she feels better soon.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I'm sorry to hear about holly. do you have any idea how she got the infection?