Saturday, May 18, 2013

A Spring In Her Step

Portuguese Water Dogs are hairy creatures. They have hair growing everywhere including their ear canals and other  unmentionable places. In case you're wondering, the hair in the ear canals protects the eardrum from cold water while swimming. I don't know what purpose the hair in the unmentionable places serves. They also grow lots of hair on the bottom of their feet.
Sky was forever getting little stones wedged between his foot pads and the stones would get twisted in his long hair and form hard painful mats. He would let me know he had these mats by constant foot licking and I'd cut the mats and stones out for him.
Morgan is not a Portuguese Water Dog, but she also has hairy feet. Rob and I both noticed that she was limping and we thought it was from her knee injuries and didn't pay too much attention. Then Thursday night she started licking her front foot and chewing on the pads.

We put her up on the bed and I examined her foot. There was a mat between her pads so I grabbed my embroidery scissors because they're very small and I thought I could get in the tight little area to cut out the mat. Rob held her while I attempted the surgery, but she struggled and twisted and tried to pull her foot away. I was able to cut away part of the mat but afraid of cutting her if I tried to get the rest.
Friday morning I called the clinic and spoke with one of our techs. I explained the situation and asked if she would try to remove the mat. I had checked the other front foot and there was a smaller mat in that one, too. She agreed to try and we both thought that Morgan might hold still for her.
Rob and I drove over with Morgan and he took her into the exam room. I waited in the lobby. I didn't hear any howling or yelling so I assumed it was going well. About ten minutes later they all came out and our tech said it was a good thing we'd brought her in because she had mats in all four feet and there was an especially large one in one of the back feet. She was able to cut them out and shave down to the skin with a number 40 blade.
Morgan walked out of the clinic after her mani pedi without a limp. Then she went home and ran the length of the yard with the other girls.
 She's feeling much better and we'll be checking all the hairy feet on a regular rotation to make sure nobody is trying to walk on painful mats. It's no fun to have a stone in your shoe, imagine having one attached to the bottom of your foot.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

We don't have quite the hairy thingie on our feet, but Mom & Dad still have to check out our pads each week for stickers!

The Mad Scots

♥♥ The OP Pack ♥♥ said...

Thunder, Lightning, and Ciara all seem to wear down those fur pads pretty well between zoomies in the yard and long walks. But poor Phantom, for some reason the fur between his pads grows like weeds - Mom swears they must get fertilized somehow. Poor guy slips on the hardwood floors. He won't let Mom trim the fur so he has to go to the vet place where one of the vet techs seems to be able to keep him calm and trim those pads. The biggest problem is getting Mom to remember to take him:)

Woos - Phantom, Thunder, Ciara, and Lightning

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

We have that hairy paw problem. And we hate getting them trimmed...yuck!

Glad Morgan feel better.

XXXOOO Daisy, Bella & Roxy

bichonpawz said...

We understand this problem! We get long hair between our pads too! For some reason, the hair seems to grow really fast there and it is really hard for mama to trim them, butvwith a bit of help from dad ... They get the job done!

Two French Bulldogs said...

We lucky we have hairs on our body we shed so much. Glad mom pays attention to your feets
Benny & Lily

Life with Wrigs said...

Ouch! So happy to hear Morgan is feeling much better! I check Wrigs's feet daily for cracked pads, bruises, and cactus spines, and he gets his daily foot rub with lanolin. No problems with hair, though.

Susan and Wrigs

Molly the Airedale said...

We have hairy feets just like you do and we get mats between our pads on occasion. Our mom thinks it's fun to cute them out. She never knew about the #40 blade. Thanks, guys!
We're so happy that you're feeling better now, Morgan!

Love ya lots♥
Mitch and Molly

STELLA and RORY from Down Under said...

Howdy mates, I, Stella, have hairy feet too and mum trims them every now and then. Occasionally I have gotten a prickle stuck but mum is able to cut it out. HOpe you don't suffer anymore stones in your hair mates. No worries, and love, Stella and Rory

My Dog Sam - Ruptured Disk said...

Yikes that even sounds bad. Glad that it's better, way better now.

Matilda the Boxer said...

Ouch! I'm glad I don't have such hairy feet.

Lapdog Creations said...

Ouchy... we hate when our feet aren't feeling so good! Glad to hear it got all fixed!