Joys of an Elderly Dog

[Pataflafla]

So my baby boy is 16 years old. I've had him for all 16 of those years. He's been showing his age since he was 12, but now he's finally getting to the super old age range.

He recently developed a pressure sore on his right hind leg which is healing up slowly, but nicely. Today I Found another on his left foot which is a lot smaller. I immediately cleaned it off (He's got some short legs so he can't quite step over his pee puddles unfortunately) and started a treatment of some Animax ointment like I did on the other pressure sore. I'm thinking the urine on his foot probably started that one more than pressure so to speak.

So, I noticed another problem on his tummy while I had him on hia back so I could clean his foot off. It looks to be like some liver spot and everything I search up looks nothing like it, which is good since I'm looking up dermatitis and skin cancer.

So, has anyone ever had experience with caring for pressure sores? I know I need to keep him moving for the sake of his joints as well as his skin health and i'd love to give him another bath as soon as I can.

His coat is dense (Corgi mix so it's kinda terrible) and takes a day or two to dry completely. Would it be safe to give him a bath or might that hinder his healing?

[Animal Lover37]

Yes you can give him a bath. It wouldnt hurt to wash the spots with shampoo but if it hurts him then just go around it. the water shouldnt bother it especially if its soft and not pressurized. As for the sores there are a lot of cream and sprays and ointments you can put on the sores. The thing on his tummy...if it looks like he just lost fur and it isnt protruding then he probably rubbed his tummy against something. It happens a lot with short legged dogs. more dachsunds than corgis.

i know this from experience. I was a bather at petsmart and i would often get older dogs and just any dog with sore and would wash them like normal and the wouldnt mind. Along with working there i also had to know how to help customers with what they needed so i know a lot about the treatments for stuff like this that they offer. if anything he just needs antibiotic cream that also soothes and reduces irritation.

i hoped this helped a bit.

[Pataflafla]

I'm fairly certain that the sores aren't hurting him in the least since I can gently pinch them without him even batting an eye. Neither of them have even gotten close to looking very bad, they're more just hairless and slightly pink. the only time they were a bright red is when the hair first came off, which I pulled off since it was clumped together and matted. I frist tried to gently brush it out, but since it came out in chunks, I just gently plucked all that would come off in a light tug.

The red spots on his tummy aren't raised at all. Merely just reddish brown spots on his skin that weren't there before.

So it's safe for the sores to be damp fora few days? He's got a dense coat that doesn't dry quickly at all. He doesn't help with his legs drying either since he lays down a lot (Hence the pressure sores). I do not have a hair dryer to help speed things along anymore either.

[Animal Lover37]

Ya he will be just fine. An other thing causing the sores could just be the summer heat. My labrador has them too and hes just two years old. He lays down a lot plus its hot so he get sores on his chest and for legs.
As for the bath part the moister wont bother the sores as long as you really concentrate on drying the exposed skin. His coat can be a bit wet thats fine but just a take a towel or two and really ruff him up a bit to get him dry. at least get the sores dry just so that the skin doesnt get soft and then get raw from laying down.

[Animal Lover37]

brushing him out before and after his bath can help him dry a bit faster too.

[registereduser]

I recommend this stuff:

http://vetericyn.com/

you can get it over the counter and there is a stronger version you can get from a vet.

[Pataflafla]

Alright. I'll probably give him a bath tomorrow so I can spend the entire day brushing and drying him. It'll give me some time to do a load of towels before going to work too since he'll need probably three or four to get him near to being dry.