The Dreaded Cone: Round 2

We noticed around a week ago that Oscar was licking his right paw. We tried to see if anything was wrong with it, but we couldn't tell through his fur, even after I gave him an impromptu paw grooming. (It's official - I have no future in becoming a dog groomer.) We looked at his paw on several occasions, despite the almighty struggle he put up because he hates having us touch his paws, and saw that it seemed a little bit red and raw. I bought some ointment from the pet store for his paw, but it didn't seem to do much, except make him lick at it more, even though the ointment was supposed to taste bitter to discourage chewing.

Besides the licking, Oscar didn't seem to be bothered by his paw much, and he ran around like he normally did. We figured that we would leave it for a day or two and see if it got any better, since we couldn't figure out why he kept licking. Last night, though, he started biting his paw. He'd latch onto his paw and roll around, growling. Not good. While we can try to wait out licking to see if it gets better on its own, we didn't want to just leave things alone if he was going to gnaw on himself. Time to go see the vet.

It looks worse than it is because I cut all of his fur away
from his first toe, and the red is staining from him licking
at it, but it was inflamed and was definitely bothering him.

The vet said that his nail bed looked inflamed, and she thought that something had probably pricked his paw and was still embedded somewhere around the nail. She couldn't see it, so she said we'd have to wait until his body just expelled it on its own. In the meantime, she recommended some antibiotics for him since his paw had gotten inflamed, and she didn't want it to get worse. She said that if he kept licking, a yeast infection could develop between his toes. Eww...what?

So our little pup is on antibiotics for a week. Our vet also recommended that we put a cone on him for the time being to allow his paw some time to heal without him licking or chewing at it. We tried to put the cone that he wore after his neutering back on him. He hated it. I don't remember him struggling quite so much back then, but he just went absolutely bonkers this time around.

He has no idea what's about to happen!

His last meal as a free dog...for about a week, at least.

And the struggle begins.

Taking a break from trying to tear the cone off...

He looks happy, but he's not. Trust me.

Yet another intense struggle...

Ironically, this can't be good for his paw.

You should have heard the noises he was making!

I suppose he's grown out of his cone, because he managed to chew a chunk of it off, so I had to go out and buy a new one a few minutes before PetSmart closed. The new one has a lining along the edges for comfort, but he gnawed part of it off within minutes. He seems to have given in for the time being, but tomorrow's a new day.

The new one's not any easier to tear off than
the old one...but Oscar had to see for himself.

Trying to become an escape artist is tiring!

Miserable...but cute! Poor thing.