Not again, pad injury/allergy - Page 1

I've never had anything like that, but I would try Vetericyn; he won't realize there's anything on his foot and it promotes healing while killing all different kinds of nasties. Could it be a small fungal infection that keeps recurring? Or is it just the way he walks on hot pavement? Another thing you could to lubricate and soften the skin on his pads is coconut oil. I do that for mine when we first start walking/biking on pavement or concrete in the summers. I don't know if it's doing much, but I haven't had any problems, so I'll stick with it. 

I've seen that a lot. I think it's fungal. As the whole inside of the toe looks red and inflamed. The pores are black and if you pressed on them thick stuff comes out. The loss of the pad is because everything under it is red and nasty looking.
My first suggestion is to wash is foot in Malaseb shampoo or flush.
http://www.1800petmeds.com/Malaseb+Shampoo-prod10667.html
Use a little Dawn to remove any dirt or sticky junk that seems to build up on these things. As Malaseb has no detergent action.
After the foot is dried use some Gold Bond medicated foot power. It doesn't taste good, i know from personal experience. :p
And just try to not fuss with it a lot. Use the powder before walks to help protect and coat the foot.
This should go away, if you can get the yeast/fungus under control. Also it may help to clip off the hair under the foot and between the toes because the fungus is hiding in the structure of the hair shaft and they seem to clear up quicker if there is less hair to hide in.
Check his other feet but usually this seems to only affect one or two toes at a time. Rarely the whole foot.
Really annoying, but it seems more a bother then painful. As many a dog has let me dig around in their pads when they look like that and never complained.
Best of luck!
Fry

I am 100% convinced it's a fungal allergy. Twice this year my GSD has suffered from it on her metacarpal pad on her front foot. I can't even connect the two to the time of year, February and June either.

I washed the foot with warm salt warmer first then applied a brilliant cream called Dermisol which gets rid of all the necrotic tissue and debris and then promotes healing. I did this twice a day. The 2nd episode she had last month healed much quicker because I knew what to do this time from Day 1. The first episode it took 13 days to heal and this last one 7 days. I am lucky in the respect she will keep a baby's sock on and a Ruffwear boot if it is raining when she went outside.

I took pictures of the whole healing process when she first had it back in February this year.

@Spooks - Your photo montage is very interesting!

I've never seen this in my own dogs. When the pads heal, you might want to buy some Musher's Secret to protect those feet. It works. If this continues, I'd think about seeing a dermatologist, there are some autoimmune diseases that can cause the pads to slough off. Fungal infections are opportunistic, so there may be an underlying reason for this to be happening.

http://musherssecret.net/

I buy Musher's Secret on the net. Other than the fact it works great to protect and toughen pads, it isn't greasy and doesn't leave any residue where the dog walks.

Keep it clean and let him lick it all he wants.
I wouldn't use anything unless you think it's getting infected.
My dogs always lick off any medication I try to put on them.

It's hard to tell from the image what's going on, but it does look scraped or like a flat cut.
I would think a fungus would be spread out over more area if that was the case.
Is the skin broken?

I've had dogs cut their feet digging and I've seen them with spider bites.
Never anything bad enough for stitches, and they usually heal up without anti-biotics.