The infamous Acral Lick Granuloma

So... about Lacy. Seems Abby's pal has gotten one of these... Yea. If you have ever dealt with this, well, with your dog, I can now empathize. It's almost like the wound that never goes away...

For the past 8 weeks Lacy has had " a place on her foot " that started getting noticeably larger and not healing. The cause? Vet says " who knows?". Thinking maybe she jumped over some fenced area she KNOWS that I have gotten onto her before about. Fenced off area for compost, but back part of fence is the farmers barbed wire for his cattle.

The neighbors said that she repeatedly gets in there chasing a squirrel or after soemthing to eat. Well, the sore got to be about a half dollar size so then I took her to the vet. Standard procedures: Synotic drops (steroid?) for as long as the bottle runs out 3x a day. Did that, got a little better, however I noticed Lacy continually licking at it, almost knawing at it. So, I thought mabe we should put some neosporin on it, keep it lightly rapped, give it a few days. After 12 times of ripping off the bandages, she was still at it.

Called the vet again, got a different one this time. He stated she should have been on antibiotics from the beginning. So, he prescribes Simplicef 200mg, 1x a day for two weeks and not to wrap the foot but buy one of those collars with the cone ( can't remember the name ) and crate her for two weeks with exception of getting out under close supervision. So, that is where we are now, after 2 weeks. The sore is about 85-90% healed. BTW:Changed her from fish based food now to chicken based food. No corn, soy, etc. Trying to eliminate food allergies.

Here is my dilemma, I'm afraid to un-crate her, take off the collar and let her run with Abby now. IT SURE WOULD BE A RELIEF TO ME, however I am concerned. While I don't see her reaching for the foot, she is constantly knawing at the inside of her paws. Where her webs are, almost like she is trying to get a bug out. I looked at them, no harm done yet, but something is "eating at her" sort of speak. I can't really afford the allergy testing route right now after all the previous bills. So, again I asked the vet, he stated to poor poroxide in her paws to kill any infection. Have done that at least 5x.

So after multiple vet visits, antibotic drops and pills, collering, crating, changing food, and a flea bath 2 days ago that didn't work, just not sure if it's time. That's what we get when we care about these Labs so much..

Ready to un-crate her, she's ready for it, and both Abby and Lacy are ready to get back to their routines. What should I do and what is the next step? I don't have anyone to monitor throughout the day, so as of right now she's still spending time in the crate. Really ready to put this thing behind us and get back to normal, but just concerned.
BTW: I hope this post can help someone, I wish I had known how to expedite the healing, without pro-longing the process. Sometimes, old pet owners have to know what to ask for. Almost like at our own doctor's office at times.

Thoughts?

Maverick does the exact same thing. Our vet also told us NOT to put anything on his sore on top of his foot. What really helped him was using https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d4fea4e5a7.jpg and give him an all over bath. I noticed a vast improvement. I also have noticed that when his ears are bothering him (he has chronic ear problems) he gets more aggressive chewing on his feet. I don’t know that he’ll ever stop foot chewing as I think it’s habit now, but the wounds on the top of his foot are starting to heal and his ears, as long as I continually clean them, are pretty good. Our vet also put him on 500mg of Amoxicillin 2x daily for a month and that helped too.



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jI'm sorry for both of you and the pups. I haven't had this, yet, but just to comment on the ear/foot connection. When Oban had itchy ears my VEt told me to watch out for biting his feet too. He said they put their foot in their itchy ear to scratch it and it transfers to the foot. Hind foot, you'd think.

I had this with a German Shepherd for years. I'm told when they have allergies, (food or environmental) instead of red eyes and runny noses like we get it, they get itchy feet and inflamed ears. These then get secondary infections.

Check with your vet and ask if Benadryl would be beneficial. If so, dogs require a bigger dose per pound than people do. (Their receptors bind to Benadryl differently.) A 75 pound Shepherd would get three 25 mg tablets, for instance.

Good luck. I know how frustrating it is.

Meeps83, thanks for the advice. I went and bought a bottle of that yesterday, appreciate the picture, knew exactly what to look for. I'm going to try to see if it will work. TuMicks, I didn't realize that about the benedryl, no wonder one tablet wasn't doing anything. Appreciate the heads up on that.
Will continue to do some trial and error, but the foot to ears/mouth thing is starting to make alot more sense. Scratching the ears and mouth with a foot that may still have bacterial or fungal infection can surely pro-long any healing. Hopefully this shampoo will do the trick.

Thanks for all the replies and helpful info.

Jdog