skin issues - our brand new boy.

[bmore_girl]

Hello all! this may be long and rambling but i am a brand new pittie momma. we picked up our boy from the shelter on friday and he'd been there about 2 weeks. he came from another home, not a stray. he is verrrrry well-behaved. he has some skin issues though that are breaking my heart. his nose is scaley and he has a few abrasions on the top of his snout he seems to be opening/irritating with his nails. he also has painful looking crusty scabbed areas on the back of one of his front ankles and the side of one of his back feet. i want to make sure i am doing everything i can to provide some relief. he's blue in color and i read a few things online that said they're prone to skin issues.

1. we took him to the vet saturday and he noticed the skin issues also. he sent us home with medicated shampoo. he also said we could vaseline his dry nose, which we've been doing several times a day. he said once his kennel cough is cleared up and he's neutered we can bring him back for a skin check-up. (we pulled him from the shelter since his kennel cough wasn't clearing up in there and have to take him back sunday to get fixed.)

2. we are switching him over from science diet (what he was sent home with) to the same food as our other dogs - nutro grain free venison. he loves the taste and i feel like better food may help with his skin.

3. he is settling in nicely. appetite has picked up and he seems pretty happy around here. trying to keep him stress free and relaxed b/c i know stress can trigger skin issues.

4. we got him multi-vitamins that include all the good skin vitamins and started giving him those saturday.

5. he is getting his first bath with the medicated shampoo tonight.

6. i put some vaseline on his foot scabs too last night but feel like i could get something better for them. ideas?

thank you everyone in advance!

[jamielvsaustin]

Sounds like you guys are on the right track! Do you know what the scabs are from? Could they be from being in a cement kennel at the shelter? How good were they about cleaning up after the animals? I know sometimes they can get urine burns if they're laying in it for too long (any time is too long, but it's a little hard to keep up with in a kennel).

Are you crating him at home? If so, are their blankets in the crate? We made the mistake of crating our foster (has been adopted) with blankets and she would root in them so much and move them around she rubbed the top of her nose raw. Could it be something like that?

I'd just wash him with the shampoo and keep everything as clean as you can (and not let him lick his wounds), and put the vasoline on the nose-since it's dry. I don't know if I'd put it on the scab on his ankle. In my mind in order for something like that to heal it has to be able to breathe and covering it with vasoline would prevent that. Since his nose is lacking moisture, it makes sense to me to put the vasoline there.

But I could be wrong.

Good luck, be sure to post pictures some time!

[bmore_girl]

yes, he was on cement floors and i'm not sure if it was kept super clean. we don't know exactly what the areas on his feet are from. i just put neosporin with pain relief on the worst one. he keeps holding that paw up so i assume it is really bothering him.
yes, he is crate trained and actually loves his crate. when he is in there during the day (he walks in on his own) we can hear him scratching so we've started keeping the door closed and keep him in the same room as us so we can discourage the scratching. at night he seems to settle down in there fine and doesn't root around too much. we had a soft flat bed wrapped in a blanket in there for padding so he is comfy. his feet seem so sensitive so i wanted to keep him on something soft.