I’ve had several blogs about Cassie’s sore paw and it has taken over a month to heal. I’m the problem, my vet said with her tone. When she told me to keep Cassie’s paw clean and dry – I figured alcohol would do the trick, to kill bacteria. But the vet reprimanded me. Alcohol kills the good and the bad cells, preventing healing.
It wasn’t until I was in the car over a week ago when I heard on Wisconsin Public Radio; Dr. Zorba Paster’s http://www.wpr.org/programs/zorba-paster-your-health commented about cuts on people, and that we use too much antibiotics. All we need is good old fashioned soap and water. Duh! We’ve been hearing that since we were little kids. But since Cassie’s wound was on the bottom of her paw, constantly exposed to stuff, I figured alcohol would clean it better, but it hadn’t.
So I tried washing her paw after each dog walk. I’d lay out three bowls of lukewarm water, one with dish soap and two with clean water for rinsing. Then I had a towel on hand to dry her paw and catch the drips. I couldn’t believe how dirty her paws were! The ground is covered with snow, so there isn’t any mud, but her wash water was always filthy. No wonder her paw took forever to heal.
In the future, use soap and water – not alcohol, plus an e-collar or cone to prevent her licking. This did the trick.
