Long term prednisone use-Relief for crusty nose?

[Bijoux]

My dog has an inoperable spinal tumor. With great care from her vet and a good deal of luck she has continued to live well beyond the neurologist's estimate with a good quality of life. Prednisone has done wonders in helping her with her pain and keeping her mobile, but long term usage (6 months) has caused her nose to get really crusty. She gets food in the cracks when she eats and it is very difficult to keep it clean. Rubbing it only rubs off skin. Has anyone else had this problem? Do you recommend any particular products to help? Thanks!

[Christine]

Someone awhile back posted about using olive oil on sores. I am wondering if this might not be worth a try as it is non-chemical in case she trys to lick it off. My Bailey has been on a low dose of pred for around a year and not had this problem - does vet think it is because of the pred?

[sunspirit]

I just did a search for chapped dog nose in google and found people have used coconut oil, vaseline, and bag balm. There is also a balm made for dry dog noses http://thewelladjusteddogco.com/index.html

Tucker has been on a low dose of prednisone for almost two years and he hasn't had that problem either.

[SandyNY]

of course you are already making sure he has fresh water available all the time.
My first thought would be bagbalm but I have a suggestion - lip balm / chap stick.
When I was in college a fellow student was forever taking my chapstick, rub it on her finger and apply it to her chapped nose as she had chronic crusty / sore nose!
Honestly, now days when i get a cold and my nose gets sore, i grab the chapstick! It really works well!

[Dianne]

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm ... icleid=422

Causes of skin ulcers and crusty lesions on dogs.

[Bijoux]

Thanks very much for the suggestions! I will give them a try and report back.

My vet is the one that told me that the crusty nose is a known side effect of long-term prednisone use. She is at a high dosage and has been for a few months.

Thanks for the note on water. We keep her well hydrated. She has had a lot of digestive issues and is on Metronidazole full time as well. When she is not on it she has to go out non-stop and gets dehydrated very quickly.

[Caroline]

Hi,
My dog Buster also suffers from the dry nose, I was putting vasoline on his nose but a couple of weeks ago he biffed it good again, and actually had a chunk of nose skin missing. Poor guy was in pain and I was horrified ,now all I use is Aloe vera gel on his nose and pads.
The gel has a nice cool feeling to it. The vasoline also works well and makes his nose shine lol.
Keep the faith

[Bijoux]

Update: I ordered the Natural Dog Snout Soother someone mentioned above. It contains candeilla wax, unrefined shea nut butter, organic hempseed oil, jojoba oil, kukui nut oil, sweet almond oil, rosemary extract, natural vitamin E. I asked my vet if she had any concerns with me using it and she said no. I like it. I think it has helped some although I haven't seen massive improvement. I would think you could use other balms with similar ingredients and get the same result.

I also tried using chapstick as someone else suggested. Although it appeared to work great at the time of application, I thought her nose looked a bit worse a day later.

[critters]

I frequently have scaly lips, and I've found that Chapstick loosens the scales so I can get rid of them. Maybe it's doing the same for Bijou?