Epsom Salt and Frankincense

When Brenda first came into my life, she was a wobbly and inexperienced walker, yet she liked to walk. A few 45-minute walks a day was the norm with a smattering of daylong hikes and 2-hour Sunday afternoon strolls thrown in. Then Brenda’s paws got infected. Warts or blisters. Can’t be sure. Maybe both. White pustules and hardened callus-like creatures started cropping up in between her toes (and around her lips, too!).

This was July. Start of summer in Manhattan. The scorching pavement just tore her feet up. So then we didn’t walk. She rested and heeled. At the same time she still had the mysterious, postulating sores on her chin and around her mouth, which we later found out were because of an allergy to her plastic dinner bowl.

The prescription called for rubbing frankincense on her open sores, and soaking her feet in tepid water with dissolved Epsom salt and then slathering them with special balm from the vet. Belisa, the only person Brenda trusts in the world, had to come over and help because every time I went for the feet Brenda snapped at me. Luckily she was wearing a muzzle each time. I don’t entirely trust her. One of us held her with her tummy against ours, and the other would do the deeds.

It worked. Brenda is healed. Now if we can just get her past the emotional block against walking outside that developed inside her head during her period of infirmary.