Cyst

Willow has an interdigital cyst (between the middle 'fingers') on a front paw. I'm used to these because one of my parent's Cavaliers used to get 2 or 3 a year. It came up and burst two weekends ago, on the Saturday. OH wibbled at me, so I washed it in saline, wiped down with hibiscrub and expected it to go away.

One week later, it's still there and still weeping clear fluid. I'm suspicious that Madam Willow is having a darn good chew overnight, so she starts sporting the latest of fashions - the sock!

Another week and three 'lost' socks later she is still limping and obviously unhappy with the paw. The cyst has reduced to a flesh coloured, fingertip sized lump that is clean and dry, but appears happy to stay like that. I remember the Cavaliers cysts as vanishing almost overnight, am I remembering wrong? Do cysts really take a month to heal?

Should I be thinking of a vet visit? My problem with that is the only thing I can think of that he could do is to open the cyst up again and look for a foreign object, and that means an anaesthetic. Do I just wait, and hope it doesn't get infected? I'm also running out of spare socks, and she will chew it if she can.

To my mind - definitely a vet visit, inter digital cysts can be a cause of considerable misery to a dog. A steroid injection would stop it itching and slow her desire to keep worrying at it and doubtless a course of the appropriate anti-biotic would reduce swelling etc.
Hope the problem is soon sorted and Willow is back on form again.

Vet this morning, and boy was that gruesome. A little local anaesthetic, one scalpel blade and a whole lot of gunk later, we're back home.

Willow is still limping, but is doing so on a multi-coloured camouflage bandaged paw. The vet said two weeks is way too long for a simple cyst to heal and I should have brought her in last week. She's worried about the 'toe' joint as well, she said it has a lot of crepitus in it.

Willow is now on painkillers (tramadol), antibiotics and double her normal steroid dose. Couldn't see or flush out any foreign bodies, so a swab is being sent off to a lab. Fingers crossed its a simple infection.

Oh dear, hope she will be o.k.

Glad you've got matters under control and hope she will make a speedy and full recovery.

Oh hope she feels better!! I usually give my dogs an epsom salt bath a few times during the week, especially if we go on trails. He used to lick his paws a lot and this helps clean out their paws of toxins like dust mites, pollen, or any other irritants that may cause itchiness or infection. He's had infections between his toes before so we usually had him stand in the tub after walks in the epsom salt water for 5-10 minutes, then put hydrogen peroxide on the infected areas and patted it dry.

Poor Willow is still limping, and still trying for a good chew of her paw. She now has three socks - one on, one in the wash and one drying, and a plastic cover for outside. She had an awful night on Thursday, high temperature, aching muscles and groaning whenever she moved. Whatever the infection was it really hammered her immune system.

The good news is that the cyst has really reduced in size, and the vet is happy with how it's going. The swab results came back, and the vet added another antibiotic to target the actual bug. The limp is getting better too.

All of this was entirely possibly caused by a tiny grass seed I'm certainly going to keep her paws well trimmed and clean in the future.

Thanks for your good wishes.

Oh my goodness, that infection sounds horrific!!!! I hope her paw heals well now she has the appropriate antibiotic

Final vet check up - paw all better. She's still limping, but we believe this is because she has realised it gets her extra cuddles

The crepitus in the joint though concerns the vet, so she's going in for an X-Ray and tooth cleaning and chip removal under anaesthetic soon.

My old dog Laney had a problem with one of his toes, it was caused by an injury as a pup..apparently it is quite a common injury and usually always leads to arthritis, we managed his with a little metacam and he was quite comfortable with that.
The chip removal, is that a microchip? or a chip in the tooth? just being nosey Lol