Elastoplast/latex Reaction In Dogs

[kymbo]

My 11 month old papillon had surgery on his foot for an embedded speargrass seed, and it was dressed with a pad, then that padded cotton woll looking stuff on a roll, then co flex bandaging, then elastoplast over the top. That was a wednesday, and overnight he chewed the elastoplast. The next morning he was fine, but then suddenly blew up in the face ( he looked like a shar pei!) and it was a rush trip to the vet to get antihistimine injection etc. We all presumed that he was bitten by something eg bee.

It worked and all was good. I was redressing at home the same way ^^ for the next few days, but was using a tape instead of the elastoplast.

Fast forward to tuesday and he was back at vet for a foot check. They decided to leave stitches in and redressed his foot a different way, with just a pad over the stitches, and elastoplast directly onto the skin. This was to make sure the pads did not 'spread' when he walked, as the wound was gaping a little. They said when it was time to come off, that they would 'zoof?' the elastoplast ( apparently this is something that just disolves the glue so it is easily removed)

He then chewed that elastoplast that afternoon when I wasn't watching. I redressed his foot, and I noticed that an hour later, he threw up the elastoplast bits. About an hour later again, he again suddenly blew up in the face again, involving the same eye etc. It was the exact same swelling, but just less severe.

I went to the afterhours surgery, and he was given antihistimine and metacam via injection.

Apparent on his foot now is a rash where the elastoplast touched his skin. He has a slight contact dermatitus where it was, and the swelling of his face and eye was considered a systematic reaction.

The consensis is that he is allergic to elastoplast. The vet has never seen or heard of this in a dog.

After much ringing around and digging on the internet, the most likely culprit is the zinc oxide latex, which is the sticky latex glue on the elastoplast. I can't remember the terms that the elastoplast people used, but basically it also means that his reaction will depend on his exposure. The more ingested, the worse the reaction.

The vet has the reaction noted in case he needs surgery again so they don't use elastoplast.

As it is more the 'ingesting' part of it that I am worried about, I am looking for stuff to be wary of. The elastoplast person was also a doggy person ( thank goodness) and she went through some list and the one that stuck out was anything made of neoprene ( wet suit material ~ like stubby holders etc) anything rubber, and anything that says naturally derived latex.

I have him wrapped in coflex atm, which even tho is latex, is VERY minimal latex content compared to elastoplast, and for some reason, he is not interestd in chewing it anyway. I also have an e-collar if I have to use it.

Has anyone ever had a dog with this allergic reaction? Is there anything that you have found causes a reaction, tho not apparent that it contains latex?

The elastoplast lady warned me of walking in a park and the dog finding a used condom and having a chew which is something that I would not have thought of, lol.

TIA

Kym & crew

[goldielover]

I don't really have anything but a silly anecdote to add here since you obviously have everything under control and just have to be wary of anything containing latex from now on.

We recently had our CPR update at work and we were using latex covers on Resus Annie for mouth-to-mouth. Two of the girls had a reaction and looked like puffer fish for a day! LOL... We won't let them forget about it.

On a more serious note, i haven't heard of an allergy in dogs to Elastoplast, but there's no reason why they couldn't be. Have come across quite a few humans that are allergic/sensitive to it! Anyway, best of luck with you boy and hope he recovers soon!

[kymbo]

Thanks goldie and LOL @ the resus annie story! Those poor girls!

I will make sure Sam stays away from blow up dolls too :rolleyes:.

[anneh]

I am sorry to hear that your little boy has had to go through all this, cannot help re the elastoplast but would wearing a TheraPaw bootie help? Also could you please tell me symptoms. My adopted 8yo dog dx with a horrible auto immune disease has something wrong with one of her paws, the toe joint is swollen and strange looking and sometimes she limps. They took a cytology sample which showed no infection but they thought possible joint inflammation related to her auto immune disease. My holistic vet took another sample yesterday for a culture to be done just to rule out any possible infection which I assume would have been caused by something getting up in the paw. She does have a strange miniscule circular area on that paw pad but it shows no sign of any recent invasion into the pad. Just wondering how you found out about the spear grass seed? Thanks anneh

My 11 month old papillon had surgery on his foot for an embedded speargrass seed, and it was dressed with a pad, then that padded cotton woll looking stuff on a roll, then co flex bandaging, then elastoplast over the top. That was a wednesday, and overnight he chewed the elastoplast. The next morning he was fine, but then suddenly blew up in the face ( he looked like a shar pei!) and it was a rush trip to the vet to get antihistimine injection etc. We all presumed that he was bitten by something eg bee.

It worked and all was good. I was redressing at home the same way ^^ for the next few days, but was using a tape instead of the elastoplast.

Fast forward to tuesday and he was back at vet for a foot check. They decided to leave stitches in and redressed his foot a different way, with just a pad over the stitches, and elastoplast directly onto the skin. This was to make sure the pads did not 'spread' when he walked, as the wound was gaping a little. They said when it was time to come off, that they would 'zoof?' the elastoplast ( apparently this is something that just disolves the glue so it is easily removed)

He then chewed that elastoplast that afternoon when I wasn't watching. I redressed his foot, and I noticed that an hour later, he threw up the elastoplast bits. About an hour later again, he again suddenly blew up in the face again, involving the same eye etc. It was the exact same swelling, but just less severe.

I went to the afterhours surgery, and he was given antihistimine and metacam via injection.

Apparent on his foot now is a rash where the elastoplast touched his skin. He has a slight contact dermatitus where it was, and the swelling of his face and eye was considered a systematic reaction.

The consensis is that he is allergic to elastoplast. The vet has never seen or heard of this in a dog.

After much ringing around and digging on the internet, the most likely culprit is the zinc oxide latex, which is the sticky latex glue on the elastoplast. I can't remember the terms that the elastoplast people used, but basically it also means that his reaction will depend on his exposure. The more ingested, the worse the reaction.

The vet has the reaction noted in case he needs surgery again so they don't use elastoplast.

As it is more the 'ingesting' part of it that I am worried about, I am looking for stuff to be wary of. The elastoplast person was also a doggy person ( thank goodness) and she went through some list and the one that stuck out was anything made of neoprene ( wet suit material ~ like stubby holders etc) anything rubber, and anything that says naturally derived latex.

I have him wrapped in coflex atm, which even tho is latex, is VERY minimal latex content compared to elastoplast, and for some reason, he is not interestd in chewing it anyway. I also have an e-collar if I have to use it.

Has anyone ever had a dog with this allergic reaction? Is there anything that you have found causes a reaction, tho not apparent that it contains latex?

The elastoplast lady warned me of walking in a park and the dog finding a used condom and having a chew which is something that I would not have thought of, lol.

TIA

Kym & crew

[kymbo]

THe speargrass seed presented as a small abscess. It looked like a lump between the webbing of the paw. It was sore when you squeezed it, and he just woke up a tad lame on it one morning. He was also just off colour.

He has has the same thing before, with no lameness tho. I just noticed him licking his paw, and went for a look. The abscess was about the same size ( a pea) but when I squeezed it, I could see a black think starting to poke out. We grabbed it with tweezers and it healed without any intervention.

The vet said we could xray the foot to make sure there was anything in it first, but they were pretty sure there was. The speargrass has gone in between the pads and worked its way into his foot. He was not lame at ALL before that first morning when I took him to the vet, not was he licking his paw either etc.

OUt of interest I had an old dog once that had arthritis and one of his toe joints was lumpy ( one of either foot actually) and he lost the hair one that lump over time. Whether that was from the lump hitting things first ( when laying down etc) and just wearing off the hair or from something else, I don't know.

Maybe your vet could do a quick xray to see what it could be? Just make sure that their xray machine is 'good' enough to see small bone changes etc. I have been caught before having to get a repeat xray at a different surgery as the first machine as not fine/clear enough.

Best of luck for your boy too

[firedrop]

My GSD when he tore his ear and had to have surgery had his front paw covered in elastoplast so he would not scratch his ear. A while later we noticed he was limping and when we returned to the vet his pad was inflammed as he had an allergic reaction to the elastoplast. Now when he goes to vets I make sure that they know should any procedure need to be done not to use elastoplast. A couple of years later he hurt his paw and they used a bandage that raps on itself and not onto the skin I think it is called 3M Vetwrap. We had no problems and he didn't get it off either.

Bruodin

[kymbo]

3M vetwrap is also latex, the same as elastoplast, but there is a LOT less latex in the product. Basically the only latex in it is the little hooks of latex, similiar to how velcro works, and you can only see them microscopically)

My dog still ended up with skin irritation from the co-ban ( a different maker of vetwrap but still the same) even tho it was padded away from the skin, but it was a lot less than the elastoplast.

I am having a fight atm with the pet insurance, who are saying that the original thorn in foot is one claim ( thus one excess) and the allergic reaction to the bandaging of said thorn wound 10 hours later is another ( thus another excess)