Out of step

My Golden Retriever, aged about 13 years, developed a bad limp in his front left paw, and licked his front legs bare. Over night his paw to ankle swelled up so much he couldn't put his paw on the ground while sleeping. The vet and I touched and felt all over his leg, pads and claws, and the dog didn't even wince. After an antibiotic injection, antibiotic tablets, and inflamation cream (Predniderm) for his legs, the swelling started to decrease. Four days later his pad (would be the thenar in a human hand) split from side to side with a very deep hole into his pad. It was an abscess. After more visits to the vet and another antibiotic injection and tablets, and cream (Predniderm) to put into the wound - not bandaging until a week a week later to enable any poison to carry on coming out - the hole is now slowly healing but the limp is still bad and he is still licking his paw and leg.

At the moment he still cannot walk very far and is getting very tired and some muscle wastage.

Other tablets he is on are:-
Fortekor F20  18.42mg  1/2 per day
Previcox 227mg  1/2 or 3/4 per day

He weighs 35k.

Is there anything else I can do, or is it a matter of time and wait?

I O’Donnell, by email


NB. Only a qualified vet can provide veterinary advice, but anecdotes from dog owners who have been in similar situations with their own pets can help hugely. You should always seek veterinary advice for any question regarding your dog’s health.

Alison Logan, vet, advises…

An abscess in a pad must be very painful indeed, given that dogs walk on all four paws, so it is not surprising that your dog is still limping. It is probably a matter of wait and see, whilst completing the antibiotic course, but one would wonder whether there was an underlying cause within the pad, such as a thorn or piece of grit.

I would imagine you have an appointment scheduled with your vet to see how the abscess is responding to the antibiotic treatment, now that it has come to a head and burst. If not, then I would be returning to your vet at the end of the course of antibiotic if it has not fully healed. If it does heal but there is something within the pad then the abscess may well recur after the antibiotic course has been completed. 

Poorly paw

I have a big, beautiful Border Collie boy called Obi who will be eight years old next week. In June 2010 he cut his right fore paw, I don't know what on, but it sliced very cleanly through the sides of two toes, giving him two raw surfaces which rubbed against eachother, and also cut into the base of his foot. This took a very long time to heal, it was cleaned with salt water, I put different natural remedies on it, we rested him, etc, etc but even with a couple of courses of antibiotics from the vet it took around two to three months to heal and gave him a great deal of discomfort.

Unfortunately he was permanently lame on the foot even after it was healed and we had the foot X-rayed which led us off at a tangent because his outside toe was quite hideous when X-rayed with what our vet thought was a tumour but on sending the X-rays to a specialist vets, was thought might be Sesamoid Disease. That was treated with injections into the joint which worked on the lameness for a short time, but it returned and we were eventually referred to the specialist in October where they MRI scanned him and discovered he had five pinprick sized foreign objects inside his foot. He was operated on in November and managed to save the horrible toe which had been in danger of being amputated in order to get all the little bits out. Once his foot was healed from the operation, he was no longer lame and we thought the whole horrible business was behind us.

Unfortunately, at the end of January the operation scar split open, we couldn't get it to heal and when swabbed it was found to have stapphylococcus in it and he was put on antibiotics again. The scar mended again until April when it split open again. It was swabbed again, had stapph in it again and was put on different antibiotics because the stapph was resistant to the original ones. Since April it has split open again a couple of times and each time he's resistant to the antibiotics. We returned to the specialist in July for another MRI scan but there was nothing to be seen this time, although they did give us the option of another operation and probably removing his manky toe this time to make sure they got any nasties which didn't show on the MRI. We refused that option at the time.

Obi's foot is still not healed 100 per cent, we seem to get to a certain point and it 'goes' again. He does wear boots out when it's bad and we're now using a product to try to toughen up the skin and pads because their softness seemed to be part of the problem. About a month ago he developed a scabby rash on one back leg which quickly spread to the other leg and got worse despite washing with salt water and putting cream on it. The vet thought it looked like stapph and prescribed more antibiotics which cleared it up. It came back again last weekend at which point I called a halt to filling my dog with drugs.

I don't like giving my dogs antibiotics or drugs of any sort, preferring to rely on natural products, but this whole situation has been so desperate and awful that I took the vets advice and carried on against my personal feelings. Obi is on many different natural supplements for his arthritis and has a teaspoon of colloidal silver every day to try and help his foot. I have also now put him back on a teaspoon of Manuka honey every morning. I am currently washing his back legs with Hibiscrub and putting on Camrosa cream which between them seem to be working slowly. His legs and foot are covered by socks to stop him licking them.

I read Richard Allport's article on antibiotics this month, which came out at a very good time and have now ordered the following for Obi: Bee Health Propolis Capsules, Bee Health Propolis Cream for his legs and poor foot, Immune Formula capsules from Richard's clinic, Royal Jelly and I shall buy him some echinacea this afternoon. I am trying desperately to boost his immune system from within while trying to get rid of this infection in a natural way. I have also looked at Selenium ACE, although he does have Vitamins C and E anyway and he has liver once a week for his dinner as well as some homemade dried liver treats for treat toys and training and I'm not sure if extra Vitamin A would be a good idea. I can't seem to find Selenium with no ACE attached.

Obi has always been a healthy dog and I can only think that his problems are from too many antibiotics. My dogs are fed on Barking Heads which has some fresh meat added to it every day. They eat raw a couple of times a week, I was going to change them over completely, but Obi actually objected to raw every day and was miserable on it. There are no additives or preservatives in anything they eat, everything is high quality with no rubbish ingredients. Obi has around four hours of walks each day, including swimming, although this has been curtailed lately because of the foot and leg. He is a very happy and active dog, the problems don't get him down or stop him enjoying his life.

Please, if anybody can help with any suggestions for Obi, I would be so grateful. If there are any other immune system boosting miracles out there or anything that has worked for anybody in a similar situation, I am open to anything. He's such a lovely, lovely dog, he deserves to live his life to the full.

Thank you so much
Rebecca Kinnon, by email

Paw reaction to allergens

I would appreciate any advice anyone can give me with regard to allergies.

My five-year-old dog Tyler has had chronic ear infections since last April time and as you can imagine he's been prescribed lots of different medications over the past year. At the same time as the ear infection flared up, he had one back paw that was red in between the paws, but it was not a major concern at the time and the vet said we'd keep an eye on it. By October all four paws were red in between the toes and he was also licking them a great deal. Nine months on and his paws are still red, almost looking as if they're bleeding at times.

We're currently back and forwards at the vet almost every week and in the past month he's been on prednisone steroids on and off. Other meds he's been on/is currently on are Epi-Otic ear cleanser (not using that at the moment), Hibiscrub for his paws (not using at the moment), Epi-Soothe shampoo (not using at the moment), Surolan ear drops (not using at the moment), Otomax ear drops (currently using), Coatex medicated shampoo (currently using), Prednisone (not using at the moment but was on them a couple of weeks ago), Cortisone steroid spray (currently using) and Advocate flea meds (have not used yet).

The vet has said that long term the steroids might be the only treatment we can use, but obviously I’m not comfortable with this and the vet does understand my worries hence why she prescribed the cortisone instead. Atopica has also been discussed but is very dear every month.

I'm looking for any natural alternatives that can help with Ty's red paws and chronic ear infections, as I’m really not happy with the amount of medication he's been on the past few months. Tyler has not had an allergy blood test, as the vet didn't think it was worth it as she said 80% of dogs are allergic to dust mites, so we're basically treating it as a dust mite allergy. His bedding is washed at least once a week and I vacuum/mop/dust every day or every other day to keep dust at bay. He's also fed Barking Heads Salmon and Potato dry food with Fish4Dogs Salmon Mousse added in daily. He receives no treats. It's all so frustrating, not knowing what is causing him to react and not being able to get it all under control!

Many thanks,

Louise, by email


Alison Logan, vet, advises...

If I am presented with a young dog licking and chewing all four paws then my first suspicion is an allergy, and in particular an inhaled allergy or atopy. The red paws you describe is a reflection of bacteria breaking down saliva on the fur after Tyler has been licking at his paws, and is a real giveaway for a dog who may not be seen licking his paws. Westies are a classic breed for being white with red paws because of paw licking. I wonder what breed Tyler is?

Tyler is older than the classic age for first showing signs of an inhaled allergy, often one-two years of age, but I would still be highly suspicious. An allergic dog is usually allergic to more than one thing. My usual plan of attack is:

- Strict flea control, even if no sign of fleas found – a dog allergic to fleas only needs one flea to bite, and fleas are only on the animal for 5% of the life cycle, the remainder being spent in the environment. It follows that an efficient flea control strategy will address not only the pet in question but also all other dogs, cats and rabbits living in the household, and the environment (not overlooking the car, caravan, treehouse etc);

- Elimination diet – there may be an element of food hypersensitivity which is keeping Tyler above the itch threshold;

- Inhaled allergens – seasonal (grass pollen etc) and non-seasonal (house dust mite, human dander etc).

Allergens can be identified from blood sample or intra-dermal skin testing, allowing a specific hyposensitising vaccine to be formulated to treat Tyler.

Corticosteroids will dampen down the allergic response, but this is treating the effect and not the cause of the problem. However, where it is not possible to pursue further tests in order to identify underlying allergens, or if specific therapy is unsuccessful or cannot be maintained after diagnosis, then there is an important role for corticosteroids to play. After all, the ultimate aim is to relieve a particular dog’s itchiness. There must be nothing worse than an incessant urge to scratch and lick at oneself. There are potential drawbacks to treatment with corticosteroids so one always aims to treat with the lowest effective dose, accepting that side effects may occur.

Tyler is still young so I do think it would be worth pursuing further investigation and hopefully finding a specific treatment.

Sore paws

Woody, who is a cross, has always had very thin, soft skin on his paws which makes him very prone to injury. No matter how much he is walked on rougher surfaces, they never seem to toughen up. Is there any product I could try that could help him avoid cut pads? I now try to avoid road exercise as it makes his paws so raw. I'd heard that there was something owners with dogs in snowy climates apply to their paws to stop them getting sore. Does anyone know what it is called or any other things I could try?
Rachel Worley