My dog is biting his paw, has chapped skin & bumps. What to do?

Question

Ruger has been biting at his paw, I noticed on top of his paw he has chapped like skin that bleeds. When I opened his paw I saw 4 clusters of bumps. What could this be & what do I do? Pet's info: Dog | German Shepherd | Male | unneutered | 1 year and 9 months old | 25 lbs

Jeffrey Milner · Accepted Answer

Very interesting looking. Given the young age of your dog I am optimistic it isn’t anything particularly infiltrative or aggressive. However, it does concern me that it is likely cause your dog some discomfort with the resultant self-mutilation. I think you need to have that paw and those lesions along with the rest of your dog examined after the holiday weekend for a more thorough work up of the issue. In the mean time if you have get one, place an e-collar on Ruger to prevent further unwanted licking and injury. You can potentially try like booties as well if you think he won’t just rip them off right away. When you get to the vet, depending on the results of the physical examination they will likely want to potentially get needle aspirates of the lesions to get a better idea of what they might be. They may even recommend a full thickness biopsy instead. I think this because needle aspirates on the feet are frequently subject to contamination from blood - gravity does not work in out favor in that particular instance. If the areas is small enough and it is causing your dog discomfort, your vet may even just want to schedule to have it removes and worry about biopsying the area after its gone. Pre surgical biopsy would be nice though to better plan out the procedure and how much margins might be needed when removing. Finally, I realize your dog is having issues with this paw only. However, I would look at each and every one of your dog’s paw pads to see if anything else is forming elsewhere. If so, this might suggest a more generalized problem that would require a non-surgical approach if something is curable or treatable. Shepherds in general do like to get lots of weird skin issues so it wouldn’t be a far stretch. Things to consider that might be causing this are cysts, benign growths, malignant growths, some sort of abscessing tissue, a primary dermatological problem, or an auto immune problem. Hope this makes sense. I can discuss with more detail with your in a consult if you’d like.

My dog is biting his paw, has chapped skin & bumps. What to do?

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