Any thoughts on how to treat these sad looking toes? We think that it has to do with shedding. It also happened super fast- one day there were no issues and then next it looked like his nail was going to fall off and the toe was black. So far, just giving him daily soaks and putting neosporin on regularly. Charlie doesn’t seem unhappy or any other behavioural changed but worried about him :-(.
Retained shed causes a multitude of scale problems, indeed! The toe does appear to have
some retained shed on it.
Continue to soak the foot in warm water to see if you can get it to loosen up. Applying the
antibiotic ointment, or even some raw, unpasteurized honey will help to keep the area from
getting infected hopefully.
You could even try some coconut oil or shea butter on those areas too.
Let us know how Charlie is doing.
The toe in the first photo looks pretty badly damaged to me. I'd probably have a vet take a look, but at least take plenty of photos and monitor the damaged area. If it starts increasing/moving up the tow toward the foot, it could cause some problems. If it remains as it is, that would be better news.
Thanks for the input and great idea about taking pictures so we can track it closely. It must be bothering him a bit because sometimes he chews at it... not sure if we should cover it somehow so he can’t damage it more. I’ve read other threads that talk about wrapping it. But for now I guess we’ll keep soaking, ointment, and monitoring... and vet if it gets worse!
Thanks for following up. They’ve improved a bit... definitely not oozing anymore so thankful for that!! But they haven’t completely healed either... and I think he’ll lose the tip of the toe and a few millimetres. Not sure if there’s something more we could do to help him heal quicker...
That's great to hear, I hope it is feeling better for him.
What are you putting on the toes right now? Have you tried the raw, unpasteurized honey
on them yet, to help out in case they are harboring infection?
Worse case scenario if he did lose a bit of the toe & the infection clears up, he will be just
fine with part of his toes being gone. Hopefully that wont happen though.
Keep us posted on him.