AnnieG has just passed this on to me (she has internet problems)
Hi Mick. I’m asking Penny B to post this for me. I used to be a fairly regular contributor to COL but due to some fairly complex IT issues can read but not post at the moment. But when I saw all the problems poor Jess is having, I thought I just had to contact you.
My previous cocker, Binnie, had chronic interdigital cysts for years. They were a total nightmare. I don’t have many answers but I certainly have explored virtually every avenue. The first one occurred when she was about three and didn’t clear up by any ‘surface’ treatment until she had a fairly long course of antibiotics. I now realize that it may have been triggered by using a powder carpet deodoriser (sorry – can’t remember the name although I would like to curse it!). She had them sporadically for about a year, at the end of which time she was referred to a dermatologist. After allergy tests, we discovered she had a bad reaction to house dust mite. I shall never forget OH and vet (also male) looking in reproachful unison at me. Nearly a century of the fight for equality and the male reflex action still marries the woman to the vacuum cleaner.
Anyway, we had a blessed interlude of four years when they were controlled only by fairly hefty doses of evening primrose oil and fish oil (Efavet), clean bedding every other day, plus more vigorous wielding of the vacuum cleaner (guess who). As she got older and her immune system weakened, they came back with a vengeance on both paws. Over the years, she had four operations to remove them, regular antibiotic and eventually steroid treatments as well. The operations always gave us about six months of relief before they came back, usually right next to the scar tissue. The specialist said that over time the infection can become very deep seated and virtually impossible to eradicate completely. Ultimately – and very reluctantly – we gained some measure of control through a continuous low dose of the antibiotic Cephalexin plus longish periods on a very low dose of the steroid Prednisolone. We had to be scrupulous about hygiene as she was very susceptible to topical infections as the ‘volcano crater’ that you describe occurred on a fairly regular basis. So the hair around and between her toes was kept permanently clipped short, and her paws were dipped in warm salty water after every wet walk and then dried thoroughly. We also discovered – and I still don’t quite understand why – that keeping her ear canals scrupulously clean seemed to help. She could generate enough wax to keep the entire candle business in raw materials but, after regular Epiotic treatments, the incidence of the cysts decreased significantly.
This is a fairly unscientific description of what happened but hours spent trawling the web taught me that this is actually an established condition in a few breeds – mostly cockers and westies. It seems to occur most widely on white-coated dogs. (Binnie was mainly white with only one black ear and a couple of black ‘targets’ on her back.) We spent over £10,000 on various vets and homeopaths, only half of which was covered by insurance. I feel really bad about dumping this lot on you, especially as your Jess’s case may differ. But there could be something in here to help you. The good news is that after a couple of years, she built up a real tolerance to it. The cysts no longer seemed to bother her much. She would actually happily join in on really long walks even when a cyst was in full flight. She may have just been extremely brave but I actually suspect the nerve endings gave up and went home. In the end, she died at the age of 12 from an unrelated heart condition (although I suspect the regular Pred. didn’t help her general health). But she had a long, happy, active life and was a really feisty little darling. Hopefully, since you got onto it faster, Jess can avoid the worse stages. She died three years ago when less was known about it and I had to fight every inch of the way to get help for the previous nine years.
I really wish you a lot of luck in dealing with this and if there is anything I can do to help, let me know. I now have two wonderful rescue cockers, Cassie and Millie. And although they get fed up of constant inspections of their tootsies, I have seen no sign of it affecting them. So I suspect poor little Binnie (and possibly Jess) were just plain unlucky.
AnnieG
