Dog Hair + Gum = No Problem!

As if my Maxie wasn't going through enough, we found gum matted in his foot pad today! Really?!? This poor fur baby has been through the wringer lately! He is fighting cancer, has an ear infection from his allergies kicking up, and now he has stepped in gum and it's a sticky mess!

Max absolutely HATES his feet to be messed with. He is crazy when he goes to the groomer to get his nails cut and grinch feet trimmed.

With both of our dogs, we started right when they were puppies with touching their feeties so they could get use to it. We never had any issues with Max until a groomer cut his quick. After that, it was over. I have to bring peanut butter to the groomers now so that he can be distracted while she does his toes. Poor guy.

So Max is on chemo right now so for 3 days after chemo, it's important to avoid pet urine since chemo is processed through the kidneys. Max has been doing great but today I noticed he stepped in his peepee so when he came back in the house I grabbed a grooming wipe (if you don't use these you are screwing up! They are AMAZING!) When I went to wipe his feet, I noticed something hard in between the pads on his front paw. I honestly thought it was a piece of mulch that got caught in his fur bc it was really hard.

Once my husband and I got out the flashlight and put on our glasses we noticed it was completely matted fur (he has grinch feet right now). We knew it had to be gum. How in the world did he step in gum!??!!?!? We are super careful with gum bc sugar-free gum can kill your pet and gum is just bad news in general for your furry family members. The only way he could have gotten this was from either our trip to the beach this week or when we took him potty outside the medical center 2 days ago when he was there getting radiation and chemo. We are shocked we didn't notice it earlier and we are so so so thankful (thank you God!) that he didn't chew on his food and eat it! He's been pretty tired since he had his treatments on Monday so we are guessing he didn't even notice it being there.

We didn't want to take him to the groomer right now bc he's already going through so so much and it stresses him out to go there and have his feet touched. Below is what we did and it worked FANTASTIC! If you ever get gum in your dogs hair or feet, follow these simple steps to remove it easily and painlessly.

To remove gum from dog hair:

1. Put your hair dryer on the low heat setting and heat up the matted fur/gum for a few minutes.

2. Get a warm wet washcloth and rub it over the matted fur for several minutes. (I wetted my washcloth twice with warm water and just let it soak over the matted fur for a few minutes).

3. Grab oil (I used coconut oil) and rub the oil into the matted fur/gum. Keep rubbing it and massaging it into the fur. This will loosen up and breakdown the gum.

4. Once the gum becomes pliable, either cut it out or gently pull the gum to remove it. Since the gum Max stepped in was in between his pads on his foot, it was in a very sensitive area and I was super careful to not cut his webbing or pads. I only used scissors on the big chunks of gum I knew I could cut without hurting him. For the rest of the gum, I just kept massaging the oil into the gum and when it was pliable enough, I'd gently pull it out.

5. Continue with the oil until all gum is removed

6. Thoroughly wash the affected area with soap and warm water.

7. Make sure to give your pup lots of kisses and a treat for being so good!


Hope this helps if you ever "step" into this problem like we did! Our Max is such a trooper!

Have a great non-sticky day friends!
xoxoxo
Brenda & Max