Axel has been having recurring issues with his paws. They become really red between the toes, and he licks them and chews them until they get infected (once). Are there some home remedies I can whip up to help this from happening in the first place. Like a solution I can apply to some cloth and clean his paws occasionally? Or even some wipes I can buy to help soothe them? I just noticed now that they are getting red again and we are leaving tomorrow first thing for the cabin. Perfect timing! He will be in the lake a lot the next few days and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing for his poor paws.
Buster started getting itchy paws this year, every couple of days we used warm water and salt, then rinsed with clean water and dried properly, we did go to the vets who gave some allergy tablets but I've only given him a couple. The vet also said oatmeal is calming, we recently got some Vetplus Coatex Aloe & Oatmeal shampoo.
Itchy paws is often indicative of an allergy. If it's only his paws, then it is possibly a contact allergy, so rinsing his paws after being outside is a good thing. I'd use plain water, or a salt solution, or a vinegar solution. But I wouldn't be introducing anything that might cause more irritation at this stage, like baby wipes. I think a change of environment and the lake will do wonders! But do take a sniff of his paws. Do they smell yeasty? Could be a yeast infection (often associated with allergies). In which case, anything that kills yeast is good (vinegar for example). If it doesn't improve, or gets worse, I think a vet visit is in order. You can google itchy paws. There are several vets with videos showing how to rinse paws.
Yes we suspect he has an allergy to some sort of weed growing in our back yard. Last year as a puppy he would roll around and lie on the grass and he would be covered in crusty scabs that were very itchy. Now he doesn't lie down at all just goes and does his business, so his paws do get irritated but nothing else. They are rather yeasty smelling too quite often so hopefully cleaning them more will stop the irritation from starting. But I'll bring a bottle of vinegar with us. So I dilute it with water??
I think the usual advice is half water half apple cider vinegar, although I do believe any vinegar is fine - it's the acidity you're after. My sister puts hers in a spray bottle and spritzes it on hotspots on her dogs. With Snowie, I wet a cotton wool ball with water and then put apple cider vinegar on the cotton wool ball and wipe the affected area. I realize now he's not had itchy paws in ages! Vinegar can sting so make sure your dog is comfortable with it. Snowie doesn't mind it at all. But please, if things don't improve, do consult your vet.
Thank you for the advice! I applied the antibiotic cream to his paws last night which I got a few weeks ago when this happened. It worked wonders. Then at the pet store they suggested a silver spray. So I bought some of that and will see if it helps as well. If all of this doesn't help within a couple of days I'll be phoning the vet for an appt again. We may as have well just live there these days we won't be home for 5 days though so fingers crossed we can keep his paws calm!
I would be realkly interested to hear how the silver spray works. You may see a post of mine lurking about from a few weeks ago about Luna licking her paws so much she is taking the hair off. She was treated aggressively for ticks and mites and possible infected nicks and cuts by the vet about a month ago just incase and given a foot wash, which did seem to help a little though not entirely. And she is still doing it. So I ordered a load of hibiscrub to keep with washing her feet at the end of every day and I have ordered some aloe Vera pet spray to smooth her feet. Yesterday she was spayed and i have come home with some piriton tablets for her as well. Her skin looks much less sore from being inside for over 24 hours only going out for a wee, and I guess the collar will stop her cleaning so aggressively and might give her skin some time to heal. But its definitely still ongoing. So it would be great to compare notes.
On advice from here I did manage to persuade her into the sea this week too, so that might become a regular thing during the allergy months.
We have had this year with mollie, vet recommended increasing her omega 3 & 6 to help improve the skin to repel the irritant that's causing the allergies (grass pollen from cut grass - daddy was pleased as he thought he could stop mowing the lawn lol ) So off to the shop we went for anything fishy lol
Hmm Axel seems to have an allergy to salmon so I'm not sure how to get his omegas in easily. I haven't tried salmon oil in awhile so maybe he would be ok with it now
Well, I've been squirting between his toes about 2-3 times a day and it definitely has helped it not get worse which normally he would have been in agony for sure by now. So at the moment I am very happy with it. It was also wonderful for mosquito bites. My poor Axel was absolutely covered in bites on his face from the cabin. His eye lids were swollen from bites, his lips and his whole face and head were lumpy from I would say at least 20-30 bites. I felt terrible, he was incredibly itchy and trying to rub on everything he could to relieve the itch. So I thought hmmm, grabbed the silver spray and sprayed his whole face, eyes (its gentle for eyes) and lips. And within a minute or two he stopped itching and actually fell asleep!! I was even insanely itchy, on my legs alone I counted 53 mosquito bites! So I sprayed it on myself and it was almost instant relief.
