Swollen feet.

Dr. Marie replied:

I'm sorry to hear that Shaun is having these problems! This is definitely an unusual situation.

I have a similar case in my practice right now. It is a dog who has a bad infection around his nail and toe on 3 different feet.

One of the things we are considering for this dog is a condition called lupoid onychodystrophy. It is not very common, but it is an immune system problem that causes inflammation in the feet. It is treatable but not curable. It is difficult to diagnose because you need to actually amputate the last bone of a toe and send it to a pathologist.

Another possibility is demodex. You can ask your vet to do a skin scraping of his toes and see if this parasite is present.

It is also a good idea to have your vet do a culture of the area to determine if there is a resistant type of bacteria present.

We may be dealing with some other type of autoimmune problem such as pemphigus or lupus or vasculitis. If the injection that your vet is giving is a steroid then this is possible. The way to diagnose this is to have a biopsy done.

It sounds like this is a chronic problem. I wish I had an easier solution for you but it looks like some tests will need to be done.

I hope everything is ok!

Dr. Marie.

---This question was asked in our Ask A Vet For Free section.---


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