Pressure Sores

portgirl123

A friend of a friend has rescued a large cross bred dog, think maybe lab x boxer? but no one is 100% what dog is. She is a really sweet girl and looks like she has spent most of her life outside by the looks of pressure sores that are on her back. they think dog is about 3 yrs of age.
They have had her at vets for vac etc, they did apparently ask about the sores but were gave no advice, so just wondering what is the best way of treating them. The dog, not sure what they have called her, is know going to be a indoor dog, only let in garden for play time, toilet time. the owner says when let out she seems to love the cement ground.

Any advice on how to treat the sores would be great. As i said she is a indoor dog now

dvet

Hi Portgirl. The back would be a fairly unusual place to see pressure sores - normally dogs get them around their elbows and other pressure points, and they look like little baldy patches of leathery skin. Can you tell us exactly where they are and what they look like? i.e. are they more like open wounds, or are they like leathery, bald skin?

I'm not sure (but open to correction!) if there's anything you can do for the leathery, baldy type of sores, except to give her a more comfy bed to live on etc - which ye are doing!... if it's something more like open, raw wounds though, that'd be different?

portgirl123

i put that wrong, the sores are on her back end where when she sits they would be rubbing of the ground. Yeah they are bald leathery type things, she has a few on her elbows but not as bad

dvet

Okay, so they're kind of calluses more than sores then - I was thinking that was probably what it was, seeing as the vet didn't sound concerned. I'm not sure if there's a lot that will actually improve them, but keeping her comfy on padded beds etc should stop it from getting worse. Once they've formed and hardened, they usually don't cause any problems for the dogs, they tend to bother the owner more just from the look of them
There may be some sort of creams out there that could help to soften the skin up (anyone else on here ever tried any?), but I would be surprised if the hair ever grew back to be honest - at least not for a fairly long time!

As for stopping her from getting any more calluses, then getting her to a healthy weight would help - being overly bony (i.e. not enough natural 'padding') and being overweight (i.e. putting extra weight on the joints) can both make them worse.
And since you don't mention it i assume it's not a problem, but some dogs with bad arthritis etc get pressure sores as they find it too hard to turn themselves when lying down - so if she's not very mobile then turning her from side to side every so often (every 3 or 4 hrs) would help.
All in addition to the comfy bedding etc

Anyway, sounds like she's a lucky dog to have found a nice new home

andreac

Lots of bigger breeds suffer with these and its just from sitting on hard ground. You need to make sure that the dog has good bedding and layer it up if necessary.

My rottie has few of those but they arent that bad and they dont bother them.
You can use coconut oil cream on them to keep them soft or even vaseline.