My dog's hind paws are inflamed, itchy, and waxy. What's going on?

Oh wow that does look painful. Lesions on the foot/footpad are most commonly either from chronic irritation, immune mediated, a symptom of disease elsewhere (such as hepatocutaneous syndrome from liver disease), allergy (although this looks quite severe for that), vasculitis, or cancer. I would recommend that your girl be seen for bloodwork, needle sampling of the lesions on her head, and likely skin biopsies of her feet. This is th best way to get to the bottom of this painful process for her and get the correct treatment prescribed. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

It could have an allergic component or be an interdigital cyst. A closer physical exam and possibly x-rays of the paw would be recommended. Ruling out a foreign body (grass seed, awn, foxtail, etc) or tumor would also be recommended. If your veterinarian will not pursue a more definitive diagnosis, consider a different vet in the practice or a different clinic entirely. Discuss allergy testing, hydrolyzed diets, food elimination trials and even antihistamine use with the vet. It looks like Cleo will need antibiotics once again anyway. Use an e-collar (cone) to prevent licking which can delay healing and may introduce infection.

It would be hard to say what the cause is without having a sample of the affected area taken. Your vet can do this and have it cultured to determine if it is yeast or bacterial in cause which can provide a more targeted treatment. In the meantime, keeping the paws clean and dry is the best course of action as this can help minimize yeast and bacterial growth, especially between the toes where they thrive on moisture. Placing an Elizabethan (cone) collar on Val can also help keep her from licking which can introduce more moisture and bacteria.

Ouch! With any new growth like this, it's best to have your vet take a look in person, as it isn't really possible to determine what is causing the growth just from a photo. Your vet can take a sample of the growth as needed with a fine-needle aspirate, or biopsy, to check what cell type is present and if the spot needs further attention. Other causes can be calluses from rubbing, scabbing from a wound or infection under the skin, or other issues. Until you can get to the vet, it's best to keep the area clean and dry and prevent Ginger from licking or chewing at it with an Elizabethan (cone) collar or sock over the spot. Monitoring it for any additional changes such as size, oozing debris, pain, etc, is also a good idea as these observations can help your vet narrow down the cause and best treatment plan.

This looks like it could be a viral papilloma, or it could be something like granulation tissue (which is a part of the healing process). Since there has been a change in the appearance of the sore I would recommend rechecking with your vet to see what they would recommend as the next step. They might want to biopsy this area or they might recommend continuing the current treatments for a bit longer if this seems like granulation tissue in person.

This is likely to be due to an infective pododermatitis. It is possible that the generalized infection is actually due to an underlying predisposing allergy. Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollens, dust etc etc). Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair any possible skin lesions (like steroids and antibiotics). The following products can be found online and can be tried as a first line approach: Douxo PS Calm shampoo, Essential 6 spot on by dermoscent, Krillex Krill oil chews. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!

This is likely to be due to a fungal or bacterial infection. An immediate check up at your local vets would be necessary, combined with some skin testing (like hair plugs and culture) to confirm these suspicions. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!