Back when we got Kona one of her more endearing qualities was some cute little wiry hairs that stuck up between her toes and in other random places. Well, she’s been a little sick over the past couple months and now those hairs are gone! Let me back up a little.

About two months ago or so we took her to the vet because she was licking and biting her paws incessantly. In retrospect, we probably should have taken her in sooner. Anyway, they were infected with both bacteria and yeast infections probably initiated from some kind of allergies that prompted her to lick them.

So they put her on some antihistamines 3 times a day, one for the yeast infection (twice a day) and something for the bacteria (3 times a day). It was fun trying to get her to take her medicine let me tell you! When Hoover had to get medicine for her Valley Fever we just put the capsule in ham. But Kona is more finicky. We tried emptying the capsules into various things like gravy and other things, but the anti-bacterial one smelled (and I’m guessing tasted) horrible. In the end, I just started shoving them down her throat. A little gross, but MUCH easier.

So after a month of those treatments, she had lost about 7 or 8 pounds because she hardly ate. We think it was the anti-yeast one that affected her appetite. We had her back in to the vet. It wasn’t her regular vet, some other guy. We don’t think he scraped the sample from the right spot (bottom of her paws, between the pads) and he said the infections were gone so we stopped all but the antihistamine.

A couple weeks later, the paws still looked a little pink to me, so I asked Becky to take her back. Sure enough, last Friday she was in and her regular vet said she still has the bacterial infection so back on the pills three times a day, just not the nastiest one. Plus I have to spray her feet with some topical stuff twice a day for 7 days, once a day for 7 and once every other day for two weeks. But at least she had some time to get back to eating again and she’s put most of her weight back on. But now she has a new problem.

We had kind of noticed it a few weeks ago, but it didn’t really register, but she’s been losing hair. Her paws have much less hair than they used to, including between her pads (which was fun to tickle when she was sleeping) and the aforementioned wiry ones between her toes. Her face has lost a little too, maybe some more wiry hairs elsewhere too. So the vet said it might have been related to that nasty anti-yeast pill she was on and perhaps it will clear itself up. Otherwise we will have to have a blood test done to check her thyroid. (You probably guessed, this pic isn’t Kona…yet )

Anyway, hopefully we’ll get her all straightened out. We’ll keep you updated if anything develops. The good news is that she’s been pretty much the same old Kona, just with less hair.

Tags: dogs, kona