Abcess - IN a paw? Vet or not...

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SadKen

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So my older boy had been a bit sad for a while. I thought it might be toothache (nothing really obvious anywhere) so I took him to the vet just after Christmas with the symptom of 'he's a bit sad'. The vet went over him thoroughly, nothing major found, thought it might be diet as poo a little soft, or he might be starting a little hip arthritis as he wouldn't fully stretch his back legs out and growled (although he really hates being lifted and always has, so I'm not sure that's 100% indicative but he's 8 and a GSD, so not entirely unlikely!).

Anyway, I've been seeing to his feet for basically mud fever for a few weeks - he gets irritation between his pads every year in the mud, so I treat as per the horses. And today, I found an abcess in the pad of his paw on a back foot - actually *in* the pad, not between the toes. A weepy abcess that burst when I pushed it, with a nice satisfying squirt of clear pus and then some blood. I've never seen or heard of this, it's practically invisible and I only found it when I felt the pad was 'squishy' when I was sorting out some of the mud fever.

Is this a vet job or not? I reckon it might have been there a while, he's never been lame on it, it's not particularly big. Experiences welcome. I've put a TCP poultice on for now, which the puppy keeps trying to remove. <rolls eyes>
 
In the days when we had working terriers and therefore endless first aid our vet said never TCP as it actually kills off healthy tissue. As a poutice I use warm/hot epsom salts to soak and then animalintex and vet wrap.
 
And Tawny's feet are a disaster and I just try to keep on top of the skankiness, she is washed off with hibiscrub after a days work.
 
My GSD also gets what I call trench foot, it's been a nightmare for months. Lukewarm salt water is best but for convenience I squirt dilute Hibiscrub or the Botanica 5 in One, on the sore bit, dry off and then put wound powder on to really dry it out. I ran out of powder over Christmas and after a bit of Googling decided to go for athlete's foot powder as it got good recommendations online and it has cleared up much quicker than normal.
Vetrinus gel or spray is also good if it gets really sore/hot, as it's very cooling.
I've got one who's like a little hardy pony with feet of iron and this one is a prissy TB princess who needs his feet dried off every time he's been outside.

When my old female was 'just not herself' it ended up being a spleen issue, nothing wrong but not just right?
 
CorvusCorax said:
My GSD also gets what I call trench foot, it's been a nightmare for months. Lukewarm salt water is best but for convenience I squirt dilute Hibiscrub or the Botanica 5 in One, on the sore bit, dry off and then put wound powder on to really dry it out. I ran out of powder over Christmas and after a bit of Googling decided to go for athlete's foot powder as it got good recommendations online and it has cleared up much quicker than normal.
Vetrinus gel or spray is also good if it gets really sore/hot, as it's very cooling.
I've got one who's like a little hardy pony with feet of iron and this one is a prissy TB princess who needs his feet dried off every time he's been outside.

When my old female was 'just not herself' it ended up being a spleen issue, nothing wrong but not just right?
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Interesting about the athletes foot powder. Are his feet 'moist' normally? (I hate that word!)
 
He's quite a 'hot' dog generally. Prone to getting damp and sweaty between the toes and his undercarriage. Quite like my last grey dog. I'm starting to wonder if it's something I'm doing or not doing, although he had the foot thing before I had him, it seems to be never ending the last couple of months. His last home was quite urban so he could stick to concrete, I have a lawn and he has to cross a muddy lane to go anywhere.
I had to bath him on Saturday because he stank.
The other one is indestructible, heat, cold, rain, snow, shine, nuclear apocalypse, he's fine. Despite a much heavier coat. Argh!
 
Might be worth giving the vet a ring. I know when our cat has had abscesses he's always ended up at the vet as even when they burst on their own it doesn't always do the job and the vet needs to drain them. His are always on his face though (from cat claws or thorns we assume) so you can't really poultice them! I think he's needed antibiotics too, although he hasn't had one for a while thankfully (they've always been really gruesome, he looks like an extra from The Walking Dead!).
 
CorvusCorax said:
He's quite a 'hot' dog generally. Prone to getting damp and sweaty between the toes and his undercarriage. Quite like my last grey dog. I'm starting to wonder if it's something I'm doing or not doing, although he had the foot thing before I had him, it seems to be never ending the last couple of months. His last home was quite urban so he could stick to concrete, I have a lawn and he has to cross a muddy lane to go anywhere.
I had to bath him on Saturday because he stank.
The other one is indestructible, heat, cold, rain, snow, shine, nuclear apocalypse, he's fine. Despite a much heavier coat. Argh!
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Thistle has a spaniel that has yeast problems with his feet. She cleans them with canaural or similar.
 
Ouch, face abcess! That definitely sounds a vet job!

I'll cease with the TCP and try some Epsom salts tomorrow, see if that helps. It seems to be flowing a bit more freely ooze wise anyway. He has perked up in himself, so I guess it doesnt really hurt as much now it has popped.

I usually whack on sudocreme for the trench foot which clears it up quickly. mine doesn't have damp or hot feet, I think it is bacteria in the mud as we walk in a popular dog walking area so likely some nasties in the mud there. I sometimes go with keratex if it's really bad, but it always sorts itself. i think this abcess is something different, maybe got in through a little cut on the pad.

I'll keep a close eye on it I think, try it at home for a day and see if it improves. Vets have had 2k off me in the last year and I'm loath to run there unnecessarily. again. Heh.
 
I'd recommend bringing to the vet with that level of infection in that location. Unfortunately it might be a tip of the iceberg situation.
 
Update - we've been to the vet, where he made friends with everyone in the place, sang his dog song at full tilt in the waiting room and did all his tricks for the vet when we got in the room except the one where he's supposed to lie down on his side so we could look at his foot.

Having wrestled him into the right spot, the vet's had a look and we've decided to go with ABs for a week, with regular cleaning and Metacam to reduce any inflammation. If that doesn't solve it, he'll go back in for a GA, and have it cleaned and excavated to see if there's something in there. We've decided to go conservatively at this point because at the moment there is only a tiny hole in the paw pad, whereas if they need to extract we'll need a much bigger hole which will take longer to heal which may be counterproductive if the thing that was probably in there has come out. It remains a mystery as to why the abscess has decided to erupt through a very tough paw pad rather than the actual skin near the origin site. Ah well, another mystery for us! Pic of the boy himself to liven it up... I do have a gooey vid of the site spurting fluid if anyone's particularly interested...!
20200107_155324.jpg
 
SadKen said:
Update - we've been to the vet, where he made friends with everyone in the place, sang his dog song at full tilt in the waiting room and did all his tricks for the vet when we got in the room except the one where he's supposed to lie down on his side so we could look at his foot.

Having wrestled him into the right spot, the vet's had a look and we've decided to go with ABs for a week, with regular cleaning and Metacam to reduce any inflammation. If that doesn't solve it, he'll go back in for a GA, and have it cleaned and excavated to see if there's something in there. We've decided to go conservatively at this point because at the moment there is only a tiny hole in the paw pad, whereas if they need to extract we'll need a much bigger hole which will take longer to heal which may be counterproductive if the thing that was probably in there has come out. It remains a mystery as to why the abscess has decided to erupt through a very tough paw pad rather than the actual skin near the origin site. Ah well, another mystery for us! Pic of the boy himself to liven it up... I do have a gooey vid of the site spurting fluid if anyone's particularly interested...!
View attachment 40259
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I’d love to see the vid of the big burst. (I’m a big fan of Dr Pimple Popper!)?
 
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