Poor Elke has just not been herself this week. We noticed last weekend, that she began constantly licking her paws. Didn't think a whole lot of it, until it became obsessive. To the point that when she stood up, there would be three puddles wherever she was laying (3 puddles because she only has three legs).
I took her with me last night to run an errand. When I got back to the car, there was blood everywhere from her back paw. This scared the heck out of me. I had already called our vet and had an appointment set up for first thing this morning.
We made it through the night, although she could barely walk, and was licking non-stop. Upon getting her to the vet this morning, I found out first of all that she weighs 75 pounds. No wonder she was so heavy to lift in and out of the car! This is way up from her normal 60 pounds! We also found out that the injury on her back paw was caused by her excessive licking and biting. This I figured. But why the licking all of a sudden? Dr. Marty thinks that she may have developed some food allergies. This is common for dogs, and usually causes dogs to lick their paws. Random... Anyway, she is to get no more treats or table scraps whatsoever. The only thing she can eat is her dog food. I'm not sure who is going to be hurt the most by that, me or her? We also need to treat her back paw with an oral antibiotic as it is already infected. (He did say I can give her some cheese just to get the meds down). This worries the heck out of me that she has an infection, because her body did not react to antibiotics well and she had to have her back leg amputated several years ago. Anyway, Dr. Marty also gave her a steroid shot to help sedate her so she can rest and help prevent the licking. That shot could last up to a week.
You can see her laying on her paw in the picture above. She says, don't even think about touching me! Anyway, sending prayers for our big girl. She means the world to us and we want our crazy rope fetching, frizbee catching Elkeroo back!
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