Well, it wasn't food allergies.

The sudden change for the better when we switched foods was just a coincidence. On Sunday, we looked at her paws, and decided that they just weren't getting better (and in fact, looked to be infected), even though she had stopped (for the most part) trying to chew on them. Time for the vet!

We took her in yesterday, and the vet found 5 grass seeds stuck up in her paws. It was so GROSS! There was blood and pus everywhere... the room looked like a murder scene when we were done. She was SUCH a good girl, too... she let the vet dig around in her paws to get all the grass seeds out without complaining (much).

Anyway, this is yet ANOTHER injury caused by our unlandscaped mudpit of a backyard. (Previous ones included the lump scare last summer). We've now spent enough on vet bills for our pups related to grass seeds to have fully sodded and installed a sprinkler system. Which, I think we need to finally do. We've been putting it off for years, getting the rest of the house presentable and then front yard looking nice. But, the wild annual ryegrasses and other poky weeds NEED to go, if only to protect our pocketbooks. Not sure where the money is going to come from... but it sure seems like a sound investment!

Molly Update

We never made it to the vet. We started feeding her only chicken and rice on Monday evening. After two days of ONLY chicken and rice (and peanut butter for her pills), Molly had stopped chewing her paws. When we woke up on Wednesday morning AND when we came home, the socks were still on her feet, proving she really hadn't even tried! BIG sigh of relief! Things were so good that we canceled the vet appointment after talking with them... they said it sounded like we had things under control.

Molly is sitting on her favorite blanket in only baby socks over her bandages... she hasn't needed the muzzle or the cone for 4 days now. We'll still do it for night for a while longer... don't want any set backs. The paws are still raw and nasty looking, but slowly improving with each wash and bandage change.

Now to figure out exactly what she's allergic to, and what food to feed her now. She was on a very limited ingredient fish and potato food before, so that is out. I think we'll try California Naturals Chicken and Rice first, as that has a pretty short ingredient list. But, we'll give it a week or so on the plain chicken and rice to clear out her system. She's LOVING this.

Introducing Mollybal Lecter

She's been trying to eat her paws for the past week.


But this isn't where we started. We started with Bitter Apple, that foul tasting substance that you spray to prevent chewing and licking. When that failed, we tired a pair of cute little baby socks. This worked for our other dog when he had foot surgery...



...but it didn't work for Miss Molly. The paws became even more swollen, bloody, and inflamed as she kept licking. We tried an Elizabethan Collar...



...but Molly is too smart for her own good, though, and figured out how to chew her feet with the ecollar on by pinning her foot between the collar and the floor, and pushing down to collapse the collar. This caused untold torture to her poor little feet. That's when we resorted to the basket muzzle, ala Hannibal Lecter.



The smart girl figured out how to lick out of the side of her muzzle, however, so we paired the muzzle with the ecollar...



... only to find that her paws were STILL being worried somehow, and were now bleeding pretty badly.

I don't understand how she can still be reaching her paws through a lampshade, a muzzle, gallons of bitter apple (which she hates), yards of gauze and vet wrap, and baby socks. We have washed, bandaged, antibacterial oinmented, anti-itch sprayed, soaked in Epsoms Salts, and done everything we can think of... and every time we think we are getting somewhere, she rips them open again overnight. And, I am at the end of my rope. She's going to the vet tomorrow at 5 pm (the earliest they could get us in)... hopefully they can give us a sedative or something to help her.