White bump on paw - Wart / Fungus??

HouseOfAtlas · 05-20-2008, 12:14 AM

Hello everyone!

I have a 3 year old Puggle and I noticed that he was licking his paw constantly. I looked and saw that he has a white bump that is about 1/2 inch in diameter. It is on the side / underside of one of his digital pads (only one). There is a very small hole on it that is an open wound (maybe from him licking it too much)? It has the look of a wart (hard to explain) I will be bringing him to the vet soon, but I'm just wondering if I'm overreacting and what it might be? Maybe he stepped on something?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

agility collie mom · 05-20-2008, 08:15 AM

You are not over reacting. If you go to the vet he/she can diagnose the problem and treat it. Otherwise your pup will continue to lick. The area will become larger and larger (lick granuloma) , become painful, and take longer to heal.

journey4life · 10-21-2008, 05:47 PM

Hi, did you find out what it was and how did you treat it?

Our Dazee (9.5 yrs Bull Mastiff / Rotti cross) had an 'infection' between her toes (in the webbing) and a small open sore on one toe pad approximately 3 weeks back. The hair on the underside of her foot was red looking compared to blonde on the other feet. We took her to our vet and he said it appeared to be a primary and secondary infection. She was on antibiotics for 10 days with daily foot baths (medicated soap) and wrapping and a sock when we were not home during the day so she could not lick it.

After 5 days she was acting good, walking good and the open sore was healed. We continued the meds and on day 8 a new sore showed up on a different pad (same foot) - we took her back to our vet because it looked worse than the first time and he indicated to keep up the antibiotics and gave us 5 add'l days. That sore heeled up after about 4 days.

I went away for the weekend so she didn't get the foot baths, however still got the antibiotics (last pill was Sunday). On Monday night she was limping bad again, now she has a white raised bump (1/4"+) with tons of little craters on a different toe pad (same foot) the nearest I can compare it to is an ugly wart. Her toe hair on that food is reddish again.

I would sure like to know how your situation turned out. Looks like I'll have to take Dazee to a different vet if she is not better in the next day or so or if she gets considerably worse.

Anxious mom.

HouseOfAtlas · 10-21-2008, 06:27 PM

I was lucky enough that it went away on it's own. I did apply some Vaseline a few times and it just went away. It might of just been a scrap or something. Not really sure. Good luck and I hope Dazee gets better

Sunshyne · 10-21-2008, 07:37 PM

Journey4life - did your vet mention a nail bed infection at all? My dog had one above her nail, sounds like what you are describing. It cleared up after antibiotics & a medicated wash. It then came back a few months later! Just did another round of antibiotics and it is clearing up

Good luck

journey4life · 10-23-2008, 12:32 AM

Thanks for the feedback, he did not mention a nail bed fungus, she does have one toenail (her nails are black) on that foot that has a white bar down the center of it that I thought might be new but then discounted as my imagination.

I did look more closely between her webbing tonight (underside of her foot) and it looks like there is a raised bump with a darker spot in the area of the initial white puss infection.

Soaking with epsom salts and putting polysporin on before a wrap, sock and tape seems to make it settle down - it did settle down after day one when I did that however now it is day 3 and I feel like we are back to where we started, in fact I think it may actually be protruding more.

Back to the vet as soon as I can get out of the office while they are still open, may have to be Saturday and as long as she doesn't get any worse between now and then I'll keep cleaning and treating till then.

I've tried to attach a picture, not sure if it will work. Will keep you all posted. Thank you for your advice and support.

Today is Friday, October 24th - I took Dazee to the vet this morning arriving before the vet and waiting as we did not have an appointment. He is keeping her today and opening both locations on the underside of her foot, cleaning and irrigating the wounds. He anticipates that her injuries may be the result of a grass awn. We should know more after her surgery this afternoon.

Dr. McKee cleaned out three 'puss pods' and irrigated throroughly. He did indicate that they were quite impacted with white 'cottage cheese'. He also advised that although he did not find a specific cause for the infections he felt confident that once she starts healing she should get better quickly. 5-7 days of keeping it wrapped and 14 days of antibiotics and hopefully this is all behind us.

EntouragePups · 02-15-2009, 01:24 PM

journey4life - It appears our 7 month old pit/lab mix, Ari, has the same infection that Dazee had in her paw. Our vet initially said that it was a wart, insect bite or some kind of benign tumor, and prescribed Cephalexin (antibiotic) and Rimadyl (anti-inflammatory). This is now day 4 of the 10 day antibiotic cycle, and though I know it's early, there has appeared to be no change in the size of the "wart". We’ve not tried any foot baths, but will be going out later today to pick up Epson Salts to see if that will provide some help. Earlier today Ari somehow opened up the infection and it started bleeding pretty bad. After reading your post, we’re now concerned that he too will need the surgery that Dazee needed. Can you let us know 1- If the attached picture looks to be indeed the same infection that Dazee had, and 2- How the surgery went and if there has been any additional issues after getting the puss pods cleaned out and irrigated. Any and all help would be appreciated because it’s causing him major discomfort and pain, and we want to do anything we can to help!!! Thanks!!!!

journey4life · 02-20-2009, 05:26 PM

Sorry for the delay. It did not look like your picture actually. It took 3 months to resolve Dazee's issue

. After the 'surgery' to clean everything out she was starting to get better for a week and then it got really bad and her whole foot swelled up. I took her back to the vet and he kept her again overnight. She was on Cephalexin but didn't respond to it so the vet took it back. It ended up she had 3 different infection types, two were sort of responding to the antibiotics and the third (e'coli) was immune. She ended up on two different types of antibiotics for 2 rounds (28 days). I also bathed her foot twice a day and put Kerasolve on it. She wore a rubber boot for October, November and the first part of December. Once she was on the right medication this made a big difference. The Kerasolve softened the skin and got rid of the scar tissue. She is all better, it was a very tiring and long process but the twice a day baths seemed to do the trick, and getting on the right antibiotic helped. We kept her out of pooch-play until mid January as I didn't want to run the chance of her picking something up again. I watch her feet more carefully now, I really don't want to go through that again, and don't want her to go through it.
What I learned - "get the vet to send the tests away to ensure you know what antibiotic your dog responds to best" - every dog is dfiferent and they respond to some things better than others.