Really weird foot problem in Bulldog - any advice greatly appreciated

[Amandaclarke]

I and his owners are at our wits end. Unfortunately he is not mine and the owners have very little money to keep spending at the vets.

So situation Bulldog starts limping last year, owner thinks it's muscular - he limps on and off but it seems to be getting better. One day when I take him out he is limping when he comes back and then starts gnawing his paw. I look at his paw and notice it is red raw so take him straight to the vets who treat it with steroid cream. Few weeks later he is limping again so friend takes him to vet who says he has arthritis and prescribes something for arthritis. He has also been to this vet for routine things but foot is never considered a problem.

I go on holiday and arrange for a dog walker to come for him and my dog - get back from holiday and speak to the dog walker who says she refused to walk him as he is limping. I take him out and notice his foot is raw again so take him to a new vet. New vet examines him and says she doesn't think limping is arthritis but notices his paw is red raw and he also has an ear infection. We discuss food and I persuade owners to change him from Bakers to Skinners - vet thinks both ear and foot are due to allergies and prescribes steroid for the foot, antibiotics and cream for the ear, piriton for allergies. That was about 8 weeks ago, after a week or so of not walking him the foot has cleared up nicely and looked healed but when I walked him on sand foot is raw again, phoned vet back up and she still believed it was allergies. Since then we have not walked him for a few weeks, walked him on grass only, only walked him for 20 odd minutes but every time he is walked out of the house the foot is raw again. It blisters in the same place...it is really odd. We have tried not treating with the steroid as we thought that might be making his skin too weak hence the blistering but that's obviously not working.

I asked the vet if it could be a deformed paw as it seems parts of is paw are almost rubbing together but she said that she has never come across this before and doubts it. There is no swelling, heat or smell so doesn't appear to be anything in the paw and it heals quite quickly with sudocreme but it is obviously not going away and I just wondered if anyone had come across anything like this before? We have bought him some boots and are going to try those and I know the obvious answer is to take him back to vets however owners just can't pay another vet bill right now :(

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

My friend has a dog, who has had problems with a paw and ears. The ears have more or less always been a problem, but the paw became red and raw, the dog was limping and licking the paw constantly. X-rays were done and there was some kind of problem with a bone (I think there was a deformity or growth on it), which the vet dealt with. Anyway, it didn't help much, and the problem was the same as before the surgery.

Turns out the dog has a dust allergy, which is probably what has caused all of this.

I met the dog the other day, and he looks so much better. Much clearer eyes, better looking fur, wanted to play with my dog for longer than usual and so on. Ears are clearing up and the paw is healing fine.

I'm not completely certain of what the dog is being treated with and what food he's getting, but I know that he's no longer getting chicken (vet and specialists had said to feed chicken and rice), as chicken is apparently very bad in this situation. So he's getting beef instead.
He gets brushed every day now, gets his paws cleaned more often and my friend vacuums every day.

I have no clue if this will help you. I hope he gets better soon.

Just a thought: Could one of those doggy boots help protect the paw when out?

Yes we have bought him some boots - they are due to arrive on Thursday so we are going to walk him in those and see how that goes.

He is only being fed Skinners Salmon flavour at the moment and nothing else - no treats etc and has switched for about 8 weeks so I would have thought all the old food would be well out of his system.

Interestingly in the last couple of weeks he has developed a patch of missing hair on one side of his body which is also concerning me.

I would have thought that if it was allergies it wouldn't necessarily happen in exactly the same place on the same paw consistently - it s one blister to start with and then the whole paw becomes red as he gnaws and chews at it...it just seems odd and more like a rubbing than a raised area due to allergies.