Ain't it Great!

Teddy had his eighth birthday with me just a few weeks ago on 6 April, it seems hardly possible that the first birthday he had with me was already five years ago, during our first COVID lockdown.

We had a little party with cookies and presents. We got the birthday photos done pretty quickly, perhaps Teddy is finally understanding that the photo taking will be done sooner if he looks at the camera. 

We had the party in the morning as it was kind of cold and wet as has most of this Spring been. It did get nicer in the afternoon so we went to the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum for a special walk. The museum is closed until the May long weekend but you can still walk the grounds. 

Teddy has an interdigital cyst between two of his toes on his left hind leg. He's on the fourth course of antibiotics since Christmas. The vet says sometimes they are hard to get rid of as it has to do with the structure of their paws and rubbing between the toes when they walk. It comes up just like a blood blister, then it bursts and then we have to keep the open sore clean. Teddy has been wearing a collar each time they cyst bursts and he's also been wearing boots when it's wet outside. We'll see the vet again before this round of antibiotics are finished. It's healed up again pretty nicely but it did each of the other times too. 

It doesn't seem to bother Teddy much when he walks but without the cone he does lick the wound. Poor boy, he can't do the stairs with the cone on. I do take it off if he wants to come upstairs with me at night but usually he only decides he wants to come up after I've gotten in bed. 

Well, it ain't great that Teddy has the cyst but it is great that he's eight.  Hoping there's better health and a few more birthdays in his future. 

Footloose

Teddy had an interdigital cyst between two of his toes on his back left foot. At first I thought it was just a hot spot, it cleared up, or I thought it had, with just some Polysporsin and keeping it clean.  When it came back again, the first thing I thought of was a tumor. It looked like a large blood blister so I wrapped it with a bandage and vet wrap. It had burst by the next morning. As luck would have it, it was the weekend so I called the vet's office first thing Monday morning and they were able to get me in. After seeing the vet, I ordered Teddy some balloon boots, they're rubber reusable washable boots.  

Luckily it wasn't a tumor. Teddy went home with topical and oral antibiotics. Again the cyst seemed to heal up but the day after we finished the oral antibiotics the cyst had swollen up again. I called to get another appointment, it was a Thursday and they couldn't get me in until Monday. The cyst burst while Teddy was wearing his balloon boots and the blood was all over his foot. It looked like a lot more blood than it actually was. We kept on using the topical antibiotics and added Epsom salt foot baths. I also got Teddy a more comfortable cone.

By the time we got in to see the vet on Monday, it had started to heal up again. She said it was a good thing for it to be draining and to keep on using the antibiotic cream.  Teddy was still wearing balloon boots at this time. The vet said he should continue to wear boots to protect the feet from salt or other foreign particles. Balloon boots are hard to get on so I decided to get Teddy some other boots. 

Teddy is good with letting me put the boots on and he doesn't seem to mind walking in them. We may try him with all four feet in boots as he likes to walk on the sidewalks and the city uses a ton of salt.

So the cyst hasn't come back, his back two toes seem to be spaced wider, the vet did say there was scar tissue there. So for now anyway, Teddy is cone free but he's not footloose, he'll still wear boots at least until Spring arrives and there's no salt on the sidewalks.