How can I stop my dog from licking paws and getting infections?

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Excessive licking can be related to skin infection between the toes, skin inflammation or an allergy. A visit at your local vets is recommended to make the definite diagnosis and to start treatment for Koda. In the meantime, try and stop Koda from licking the paws as he will likely make the skin more inflamed. Using a head collar or bandage the paws (and change the bandage daily) may be necessary.

This presentation could be due to a trauma or localized spot of skin infection (likely to be caused by bacteria). A check up, appropriate disinfection and possibly antibiotics (oral, topical or in a shampoo formulation) are needed to solve the problem. Disinfection may be started at home with very diluted hibiscrub or betadine or salted water baths. Buster collar may be useful as well to avoid any licking.

Poor pup! If Princess is licking her paws to the point that they are bleeding, this is definitely not normal. The most common cause of excessive licking or chewing of the paws is an allergy problem - either seasonal environmental allergies or food allergies can cause this. Other possibilities would include a bacterial or fungal skin infection in this area, or even skin mites (mange). I would recommend having Princess examined by a vet as soon as you are able to - he/she can do some simple skin tests if needed to help diagnose the problem and get her started on appropriate medication to treat it. In the meantime, I would recommend getting an e-collar (plastic cone) for her to wear to prevent her from continuing to lick her paws and make things worse.

Hello! It might help to cover their feet with little socks, and keep them distracted so they don't continue to traumatize the skin? It is unlikely that there is something contagious between the two dogs, unless they both have fleas or some sort of skin parasite? If they are not getting better, probably a good idea to have them checked by your vet?

If this is related to allergies, you may want to consider allergy testing. This can be intradermal or blood testing. Once her allergies are known, she is given a special serum to help modify her immune system's response. This therapy has about an 80% success rate. I recommend to discuss this option with your veterinarian. Protect the paws from trauma (you may consider dog booties) and have her examined as much as needed. An elizabethan collar will also help prevent licking which can make things worse. Best of luck.

It looks like Archie does have a skin infection of his paws that would likely benefit from prescription Simplicef (oral antibiotics for the skin), a 2 week course of Apoquel (a non-steroidal allergy medication, an e-collar as well as dose of one of the newer oral flea/tick preventatives that also treats mange such as NexGard, Simparica or Bravecto. An e-collar for a week plus a medicated antibacterial/antifungal shampoo such as Malaseb for the paws would be helpful as well. It may have started from paw licking from stress or from environmental allergies leading to a secondary bacterial and/or yeast infection of the paws. Your vet can do a skin scrape to try to rule out mange, or switch him to NexGard to see if it resolves the lesions. Congrats on your new baby and good luck!

Hi there. Poor coco. Great job that you have an appointment tomorrow am. For now, I would run to petco or Wal-Mart and grab an e-collar to keep him from licking. That is the most important part. You can lightly soak the area with a warm wash cloth for comfort, and then a cooler one. There aren't any medications unfortunately that we can recommend without seeing him. My guess based on these photos is that in addition to infection, he most likely has some underlying allergies causing him to lick his feet, so definitely discuss allergies with your veterinarian tomorrow. Good luck