pododermatitis in chocolate lab

Re: pododermatitis in chocolate lab

Ella Massy-Greene — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:24:17 GMT

I have seen one case of recurrent furunculosis in a pug- I'm sorry to say that it was incredibly challenging to treat. Steroids kept it simmering rather than a full on outbreak, and it was very painful for the poor dog.

There are some good suggestions above. I would be very suspicious of an allergic cause in a Labrador, and I think you may need to have a good discussion with their owner about realistic expectations. In fact, offer referral (yesterday ).

Re: pododermatitis in chocolate lab

Andrew Henfrey — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:52:39 GMT

there is a good paper in Veterinary Dermatology by Duclos et al (19,134-141) entitled Pathogenesis of canine interdigital palmar and plantar comedones and follicular cysts, and their response to laser surgery. Most of the dogs involved were labradors and good response to laser ablation was seen in many. Their is a great description of the proposed mechanism.

I have treated one labrador and another golden retriever this way with success. For bulldogs with anatomic defects causing the follicular cysts fusion podoplasty seems to be the best solution we have found.

Alas none of these are much use to a client who is reluctant to spend much!

Re: pododermatitis in chocolate lab

vs0u — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:56:39 GMT

We have had a few cases of infected interdigital cyst type things in various breeds... Antibiotics, steroids, various topical treatments tried with only temporary success. Generally we have ended up operating on most of them (web splitting or cyst removal if only small), which seems to work. Never had one with lots all at once on all its feet though - could be more difficult...

The most recent we have had is a pair of pug x shih tzu's which are both morbdly obese and seem to keep on getting them. We suspect it is partly due to the heavy weight on their tiny feet!

When sent for histo they have come back as benign inflammatory or granulomatous lesions.

Re: pododermatitis in chocolate lab

neil walmsley — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:05:19 GMT

Many thanks,

certainly some food for thought !!

Will let you know how we get on

Re: pododermatitis in chocolate lab

scarlet — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:43:59 GMT

yes have seen this a few times. it seems to be a very chronic problem in some short haired breeds. demodex can be involved in some cases , longe term antiobosis another but a skin specialist whom i have sent some very refractory cases to says sometimes the only answer is total web resection of all affected feet. !!

Re: pododermatitis in chocolate lab

Emily Nightingale — Wed, 20 May 2009 08:51:22 GMT

Hi there.. sorry to hear about your troublesome patient/ owner (delete as appropriate). One of our reception staff had a similar issue with her Akita and I have seen similar in a Great Dane at a previous practice. Bursting the cysts (lancing), and bathing the feet in hibiscrub (chlorhexidine diluted so doesn't sting quite so much) and then getting a pair of tweezers to free all the possible ingrowing hairs may help.

There might be an allergic component (ie. walking on fresh mown grass might aggravate it more so try to avoid this maybe?). You could consider Atopica? Obviously use of Antiobiosis is at your discretion but this might also help. I would probably use Ceporex as I find this effective in a lot of cases.

Hope that helps? (Hibi is the cheapest option obviously so if the Owner is strapped for cash then that might be worth a try)

I would always get a biopsy if suspicious of anything nasty but again, cost being an issue the O might not be willing for this?

Best of luck and let us all know how you get on.

Emily