My very large lab has developed a couple sores on his elbow and and bottom of leg. My vet thinks they are pressure sores. My lab is suppose to be resting for the next 6 weeks due to a soft tissue injury in his shoulder so he has been doing a lot of laying around and he does NOT like sleeping on a bed or blanket he likes the cold floor. Anyone ever experience these type of sores before. He is also on Rimadyl and has been for 2 weeks, I have come across several people whose dogs developed sores after being on this medicine, but my vet said it is absolutely unrelated.
It's possible that the dogs that developed sores on Rimadyl also had mobility issues, like your dog, and that the pressure sores were just due to remaining lying in one position too long, not due to the Rimadyl at all. I guess that if your dog has sores from lying in one position too long then you're going to need to make him move or shift position a bit more..... Or else confine him to an area with softer surfaces. Or else try to provide some padding or bandaging for those areas that are developing sores. What did your vet suggest?
I've heard if you mix equal parts baby oil, listerine and water. Spray and rub it onto pressure sores it helps to heal them.
I notice that many dogs have "sores" on their elbows -- not sure one would call them sores, perhaps callouses is a better word? Snowie has the beginnings of them and my vet said it's from lying on his side, that it's a pattern seen with dogs that lie on their side.
I think just simply massaging pressure areas regularly could help but it's no substitute for regular changes of position. Could you do some "mat training" to encourage sleeping or at least settling on softer surfaces?
I would consider a memory foam bed. If he is not comfortable due to the heat, is there anyway you could help him cool down? A cooler room, or a fan for example?. Our adopted dog came with calluses on his elbows and legs, due to lying down on bare concrete. He now has a memory foam bed, and loves it! The calluses healed pretty quickly, although his fur always looks a bit thin there.
This makes sense -- Snowie tends to seek out cool surfaces in summer -- our tiled kitchen floor or the screed floor in our utility room. For bedtime we put down two gel mats in our bedroom cos our bedroom is carpeted. The gel mats get really, really cold -- I tried using one myself when I was hot and it became way too cold for me. But Snowie lies on them happily in the heat, although not all night -- he tends to move around throughout the night. So that might be a good alternative for a hard cool floor. Usually memory foam gets very hot. I was in the USA recently and saw that Bed, Bath and Beyond have memory foam pillows and mattresses with the cooling gel on the surface. They were so wonderfully soft and COOL. These were marketed to humans but I think hot dogs would be very happy with them!
Nor would I. A friend of mine makes up a solution with listerene and vinegar to remove the hard skin on her feet. I'd also recommend a memory foam bed.
