Paws infection on the flesh part of the paw.

I have a one year old Yorkie and currently he's been licking his paws a lot. One day my dad decided to see what he was licking and he found that the top part (the flesh) is all red and seems to be swollen. I called my vet and asked him what should I do and he told me to goto the parmacy to get cortison cream. However, when I apply it onto his paw, he always tries to lick it and even when the cream drys up, there seems to have a small amount of the chemical from the cream left on him. So I stop putting it on him. The redness hasn't gone away nor has it increase. Now I just don't know what to do because the vet said that a visit wouldn't be neccessary. Please help. Thank you so much.

 

Hi and welcome!
Is this all of his paws or just one? Has he licked off the fur too?

If it's all of his paws, it sounds like an allergy to something. Grass, pollen, dust to name a few ideas. What kind of food do you give him?

It could also be a behavioral thing. My dogs seem to do it after we come in at night. Almost like a calming thing. But then haven't done any damage--YET! I will redirect them--get their attention and then give them a chewie.

Meanwhile, you could try some chew-stop stuff. You put it on his paws and it's supossed to taste bad. I've seen it at pet stores and on-line.

Good Luck!

 

Could also be a foxtail or something.

 

My golden retriver mix(goldens are prone to allergies) has mild alergies and licks his paws alot when the pollen count is high in the summer and early fall. :cry:

 

I'd either insist the vet see the dog, or call a different vet. All that licking could lead to lick granulomas, or interdigital cysts. Those are much easier to prevent than they are to treat.

 

Oh no poor Yorkie. I have a Yorkie too hopefully he wont start doing that.

 

It's only for one of the paw. But it seems like the other ones has a little bit of redness too but not as much. Since my dog's going to have his shots soon I'll take the advantage to ask the Vet about it. The vet did tell me though that it might be him licking it too much that it became red and swollen. I feed my dog a variety of food out in the open for him to eat
Dry: Eukanuba.
Wet: Ceaser's dinner, Iams, and Mighty Dog.
--> Purina: moist and meaty, burger with cheddar cheese.

Usually its breakfast: Eukanuba and Purina left in the open with Mighty Dog, lunch just the Eukanuba and Purina, and dinner Ceaser dinner with Eukanuba and Purina left in the open.

I know it's a lot but I just don't know what to do with him because he's a very picky eater.

And I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the paws and the redness but after a walk I would wash his feet. I would literally put his paw to the running water and rub the dirt off of his paws. Sometimes I don't really dry his paws very well because I figured it's water so it just air drys sometimes.

Thank you so much for your advices.

 

If this was my dog, I would also insist that a vet sees the dog--like Shine said. I would be very afraid of those things she mentioned. And I would also be very reluctant to put cortisone cream on a dog...of course they are going to lick it off. That can't be good. Sometimes an irritation can become an obsession. I'd at least try to deter him from constantly licking.

Since it's just ONE paw, he may have been bitten by something. My dogs have been bitten before by ants and the foot will eventually puff up quite big with a "head" on it. But it first starts as licking. That's just an idea.

And a side note on the food...those doesn't sound like very good choices to me. Instead of putting all of that money on all of those different kinds, I think he needs one good quality food. IMO, all of the ones you listed are full of "fillers" that can cause allergies.

Hope I didn't offend...just trying to help.

 

Oh No! you didn't offend! Thanks for all your advices.

But what food would you recommend for my dog? I've always been scared of by-products in his food. And when I asked the Vet he told me that I should give him a mix of dry and wet food and that by-products are not a big problem in their diet.

Thanks once again.


I've juss made an appointment with my Vet. Thanks guys. I'll see what happens

 

I would highly recommend that you NOT get his shots while this is going on. If it is an allergy or something his immune system is trying to fight, injecting 5 or 6 viruses directly into his bloodstream is not going to help the situation and can really hurt.

 

The food issue is a whole other debate LOL. We all have our own opinions there, I think. I just switched my dogs to Natural Balance dry mixed with a little of the Natural Balance wet/dry roll grated up with it. The lady at the pet supply place highly recommended it and BTW has yorkies that have dramatically improved on it--so she says. We're still in the "testing phase" here. I was looking for a food without alot of corn, wheat and soy and the NB has none of that.

Let us know what the vet says about the paw!

 

There's plenty of info on selecting a quality dog food (just do a search through the archived posts here, look at the sticky, google search, etc.), but to recap, I generally look for a dog food 1) with high meat content, with the type of animal clearly listed 2) is naturally preserved 3) preferably has human grade ingredients. Probiotics are a nice plus, too! Would I feed some by-products? Definitely. But only what I select myself. For example, occasionally feeding some beef heart or kidney from the market is excellent. I'm nervous about feed-grade by-products that have been made into an indistinguishable "meal".

I steer clear of foods that have grain as the 1st ingredient (or seem to make up most of the diet), foods that contain dyes or artificial flavors. Plus, I'm not comfortable with non-specific ingredient listings like "meat and bone meal" or "animal fat". In particular, 'moist' foods are loaded with preservatives in order to keep from going bad, so I would stick with dry and canned. Also, corn, wheat, and soy are pretty common allergens, which may be an issue IF your dog has food allergies.

By the way, I really think that you should either dry off his paws very thoroughly or just wipe them off instead of rinsing them. In fact, there are doggie bath/paw wipes specifically for that purpose. Moist and warm environments encourage bacterial and fungal infections. Wet paws develop infections more easily, and one of the symptoms is paw-licking or chewing.