inter digital cysts

[Sharon]

What has been your experience with interdigital cysts? One of my setters has another one. We just got one healed up 6 weeks ago. Antibiotics does heal them up but it takes a couple weeks.
Are some dogs more prone to cysts than others? I wash their feet well after every run .

[Mount Sweetness]

Could very well be environment allergy related, either contact or inhalant or both. The dog might not get them in the winter. Some breeds are worse, my Vizsla gets them pretty bad.
After cleaning the feet apply some anti-bacterial polysporin cream to the dogs affected webbing. Use the Anti-bacterial white cream not the clear gel.
See if you can manage it, because the next step is allergy testing or prednisalone injection.

[Mount Sweetness]

Are they firm cysts or are they liquid filled pustules (boils)? Can they be popped and drain liquid?

[Fenelon]

We went through this with one of our black labs. We literally wasted thousands of dollars on Clavamox and other expensive antibiotics. Keeping the feet clean and dry after swimming/running did nothing. It took three vets before we finally found a smart one. It was auto-immune in nature. The vet said it was seen in dogs that had contracted strangles as a pup. Systemic staph usually involved, and a scraping came back as staph. Antibiotics would allow the paw to heal, but it would come back as soon as you stopped the antibiotics. What finally cured our dog completely - vet took a scraping and sent it off. A compounding lab (I think it had OVC connections) made a personal vaccine for the dog. It only took a few shots, and we never saw the cysts again. The vaccine was given on an annual schedule after that. From what I've heard, it is now not possible to have this procedure done now in a Canadian lab. Dr. Lois Batty at Cambray Vet in Lindsay was the vet who cured our dog. Re: cost - it was actually cheap at the time. Much cheaper than one round of Clavamox. Hope this helps.
Dave

[Sharon]

This is great info. Thanks

MS : Sometimes no pus and sometimes pus.

Fenelon: What is "strangles"? The dog was the runt of the litter and almost died at birth - had to resuscitate.

[Mount Sweetness]

Very interesting Sharon, my dog was the runt of the litter as well, and believe it or not he almost died at birth as well and was given mouth to mouth.
My breed is known to have auto-immune issues, huge flare ups after extensive hunting trips, flare ups brought on by allergies to weeds/grasses. It is very hard to manage with a hunting dog.

Sharon, it could be allergy related. You might find that his feet are clear throughout the winter for the most part. He may have flare ups in the summer but September and October will likely be the worst.

Fenelon is right, the antibiotics barely work even temporarily. Prednisalone injection will clear it within 5 days. Prednisalone injection will also prevent it for around 5 weeks.

[Sharon]

Very interesting Sharon, my dog was the runt of the litter as well, and believe it or not he almost died at birth as well and was given mouth to mouth.
My breed is known to have auto-immune issues, huge flare ups after extensive hunting trips, flare ups brought on by allergies to weeds/grasses. It is very hard to manage with a hunting dog.

Sharon, it could be allergy related. You might find that his feet are clear throughout the winter for the most part. He may have flare ups in the summer but September and October will likely be the worst.

Fenelon is right, the antibiotics barely work even temporarily. Prednisalone injection will clear it within 5 days. Prednisalone injection will also prevent it for around 5 weeks.

Now that - bolded- is fascinating. Not a scientific study , but fascinating none the less. I'll keep an eye on whether there are any flare- ups during the winter. Thanks.

[jaycee]

This is great info. Thanks

MS : Sometimes no pus and sometimes pus.

Fenelon: What is "strangles"? The dog was the runt of the litter and almost died at birth - had to resuscitate.

Strangles is also known as "Equine Distemper ", have never heard of dogs getting it.

Here is a link;www.equine-strangles.co.uk/About_Strangles.asp

[Fenelon]

Puppy strangles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppy_strangles

Our lab wasn't the runt (we named him Tubby if that helps paint a picture of him). He didn't have full blown puppy strangles, but he had a few papules on his muzzle/upper lip. When squeezed it was watery lymph-like (kind of like a water blister) but the papules were red. When we still didn't know what it was, he had nodules between his toes and lost patches of hair on his flanks and back...not pretty. We thought allergies too, so he was put on an all-natural diet of home made food and supplements from the health food store. This was before all-natural was the rage for your dog. Same deal with the steroids, would calm it down and clear it, but the nodules would return. It was better in the winter. Poor baby black pig-dog even had his foot operated on because the vet thought it was a cyst. He was already getting more when we took him back for the follow up visit after the operation. The vet then said "well...that is just the way he is." Consequently, we fired this vet (about as useful as teats on a boar-pig!).

Once we found the vet that we are still using today (this happened 22 years ago) Tubby's skin cleared up.

[Mount Sweetness]

Strangles sounds pretty messed up Fenelon, glad you got it taken care of and gave the dog some good years.
It's unbelievable what we have to go through to get answers, frustrating and very draining.