Foot Infection

HailisMommy

My dog has a foot infection near the nail on one of her back feet. She has been to the vet twice and coming up on a third time. She has been on 2 antibiotics, anti-itch medicine and foot cream. She did lick it at first but now she doesn't but the swelling has not gone down. Her "pinky" nail is big and red around it and it seems the vets don't know what it is. Will this go away? It's been almost a month. I can try to post pics later on since I'm at work now.
Thanks!

briteday

Only the vet can have an opinion on this.

But if the first two antibiotics haven't worked I would ask the vet to take a swab of the infected area and have the lab run a culture and sensitivity test. The lab will then grow out the bacteria in cultures (petrie dish) and then place small disks impregnated with different antibiotics on the growing bacteria to see which antibiotic kills the bacteria. It usually takes about 3 days to grow enough bacteria, and then about 1-2 days to get results on the antibiotic of choice.

It won't be cheap but I'm sure what you've done up to now hasn't been cheap either , and it's not working.

Anela

Your experience is why I started to put a time limit on meds the vet prescribes. I never leave the office without knowing how long within a certain time limit I should start to see improvement. I have discovered after almost losing the same dog three different times, with three different issues, that if vet gives two meds and problem does not get better, vet probably does not know what to do.

If your vet has tried one med then another, plus the cream, something is wrong. Vet stated that he/she does not know what the issue is. Did vet make any other recommendations??

You need to get another vet, preferably a specialist in this area that will help your situation and be able to give you a med with a time limit on it.

You could also Google your problem and see what you come up with.

Anela

RonE

The vet's stumped so go out and ask a bunch of lay strangers what to do?

This is what's wrong with the Internet.

puppypusher

For the sake of your pet, I would seek another vet.

ACampbell

I agree, seek a 2nd opinion...if your vet doesn't know, it won't hurt your dog to see another that might have an idea. A specialist would be a good idea too, either way, but I think the specialist if you can find one would know better. It could even be fungal and not a bacterial infection, fungal infections tend to be really resilient to treatments...but who knows, I think you got some great advice on here to just seek another vet, that's your best option.