Back to vets!!!

[nic93]

On 03/03/2018 at 11:53 AM, Jo said:

Little update-
Last night I emailed a photo of Amys paw to my vet, it seems to be getting worse! Vet replied ( thats service for you ) and she said she thinks the whole pad will slough off and theres a big chance she may have to have a biopsy as they are not sure whats causing it and the anti biotics dont seem to be helping! Poor Amy, shes got a follow up appointment on monday so thats 2 more days to hopefully see an improvement, really dont want the biopsy route


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Very sore paw


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I’m new here and I know this was posted at the beginning of the month, but this exact same thing happened to my boy! I was actually quite amazed when I saw this photo. He had hyperkeratosis of the paws caused by zinc deficiency (since we’ve had this confirmed with a blood test and have given him supplements the hyperkeratosis has 99% gone and his pads are normal). We think the thickened keratin on the pad cracked and exposed the flesh inside, which then got horribly infected. When we did a culture of the swab taken from the paw, it showed a streptococcus and staphylococcus bacterial infection but also an amoebal infection. He had to be put under general anaesthetic to get the paw aggressively flushed out and swabs taken because he was in so much discomfort. The vet had no idea about zinc problems with huskies and initially thought he might have picked up a flesh eating fungus (She had seen some cases of Alabama rot locally) or stepped in some sort of caustic substance. 

We treated it with 2 hibiscrub baths a day followed with liberal amounts of flamazine cream and a tonne of antibiotics. It was over Christmas and new year, it absolutely awful so I do sympathise with how horrible the whole experience is. He had the exact same lifting of the paw pad and exposed pink flesh - luckily we managed to salvage the pad with this method. I’m new here and haven’t read all your messages on this thread but her paw pads certainly look hyperkeratotic which is a sign of zinc deficiency. I hope she is fully recovered now and if you haven’t got a definite zinc deficiency diagnosis I would really recommend getting a trace element blood test done!