Tennis balls & lip fold dermatitis

Hi all. My 10 yr border terrier cross has sore lip folds. This has be happening on & off for a while,doesn smell but gets a bit sticky & sore. Seems not to hurt him but we are both getting a little bored with it bathing them etc,vet had no appointments til mon I think be worth seeing him but am wondering if the tennis balls have set this off bearing in mind he's always liked playing with them!all thoughts anyone?

it could be possible, i used to feed my girl raw carrots to keep the weight of her and fill her up, she kept getting dermatitis and eventually i figured out it was when she was eat whole raw carrots!

oh really?!thanks for reply

If he has free access to tennis balls and can chew over a long period of time might well be possible. Saliva will make covering pretty damp and slimey and could well be a cosy home for bacteria.

I've also heard that chewing tennis balls a lot isn't great for teeth but as none of mine have liked them I can't say I've seen that

Hello Amanda as tennis balls are fabric covered as Anne says they can harbour bacteria.
The vet will probably give you some cream to rub into the folds.
What are you bathing the folds in, I would use a mild saline solution until you can get to the vet that is a teaspoon of salt to a pint of warm water and use a different piece of cotton wool for each side of the mouth.

Can you substitute the tennis ball for a more solid ball that can be washed in an antibacterial solution (like the clear dettol stuff used in food preparation areas ). This should help to prevent the problem recurring

Morning thank you,he only has a ball on his walks most days & doesn chew them but likes not only to run after them but carry one,I think it's also a bit of a comfort thing for him,he's a nervous little chap really. Am doing bathing with saline & have used fusiderm which works( good stuff) but comes back so am pretty sure it must be the balls! I'm thinking maybe he needs antibiotics to destroy bug then we can start again?

Tennis balls have a glue that sticks the covering to the rubber. So it just could be that which is causing the problem. I do know that chewing the outer can cause teeth to have a problem.

My boy would (and will) chew them into tiny bits. After I found bits of tennis ball lodged in his teeth and some bits of bright green in his poo, I decided it was a good idea to buy him something less destructible. I don't think tennis balls are a good thing for dogs to have all the time. Admittedly, Kong balls etc. just don't seem as fun for my Nigredo, but he manages.

Tennis balls are really fun but they're not for all dogs-- not for inveterate chewers (see glue, teeth issues, noted above) and not for inveterate possessors, who have to have it all the time. They do get extremely mucky, and if you've ever had the misfortune to come across one that's been lodged under a bush for a few days, you'll know: the stink is horrible. They are bacterial landmines. You can wash them in the washing machine, but it is best to dispose of them when they start getting stinky, which is surprisingly quickly. Also, be very careful with larger dogs! A big dog can easily get a tennis ball stuck in their throat, and with the rough coating on a tennis ball, it'll do awful damage when you push it back up* if you have to. Inappropriately sized balls kill, so do be careful.

That said, they float, are cheap so it doesn't really matter if you lose them, and so they're great for water retrievers who don't really care about chewing on them.



*If you ever have a situation where a ball is lodged in a dog's throat, contact a vet immediately, ambulance if possible, and do *not* reach into the dog's mouth. You are likely to get bitten and to force the ball further down. Instead, try to massage/force the ball up the dog's throat from the outside, using your fingers, widely splayed to get as much pressure on the surface area of the ball as possible and as little pointed pressure on the dog's neck. If the dog is choking, it is much better to try to force the ball out this way, even if it will cause bruising (it will) than for the dog to suffocate. Even if you succeed in getting the ball out an immediate emergency vet visit is extremely important as the dog may have suffered lesions to the inside of their throat and need immediate care and medication. Source: internet research, after a friend's dog died choking on a rubber ball he'd had for years.

About once a month I gather all the dog toys, pieces of dog toys and balls and toss everything in the washer, no bleach and a double rinse. They still get dirty being on the floor or ground of course but I think it must help a bit.