Sorry for the delay in replying, Mick. I've been away covering a story down south and only just got the message. Lady Lola is spot on about the 'sp'. Any vet will understand my approximation, however. Binnie had absolutely no side effects with the long-term antiobiotics, unlike the steroids which put weight on her and made her even more ravenously hungry. I agree with Louiebeans mum that a food allergy (or even a contact allergy) is a possibility although I would have thought it would have manifested itself a bit sooner as your dog is quite a mature chap. As part of the long run up to getting control of Binnie's problems, we had a full range of allergy tests done. In her case, she showed a reaction to house dust mite and also a mite found in hay (which I forgot in my original post). To an extent, we could llimit her exposure to these but it was virtually impossible to shield her from them entirely. My vet also said that once the infection has become deep-seated, it is likely to flare up regularly even if the 'triggers' aren't present.
The regime we developed was basically:
(1) Constant antibiotics - Cephalex .... oh, you know what I mean ... at a low level
(2) A shock treatment of steroids followed by fourteen days on a lower dose if we got an outbreak that the antibiotics couldn't control. Then we stopped before she built up a resistance.
(3) Daily doses of evening primrose oil and fish oil in Efavet capsules (this really did so much good - can't recommend it enough).
(4) Paw washes in salt water and a thorough but gentle drying after every walk
(5) Foot fur kept clipped short
(6) Little boots for a week after the hay was cut (made by me out of fleece, velcro ties and little rubber soles and a right sight!)
(7) Lots of very boring cleaning of the house and her bedding and hypoallergenic food (JWB with fresh veg although I'm yet to be convinced that any of the food stuff made any difference)
(
If she was in pain, we used Metacam which seemed to take the inflammation down and gave her some relief. (My preview page is showing a smiley here which I can't get rid of. Maddening as i have never felt less like smiling in my life. I am garbage at this posting-lark however so you'll have to excuse me!)
(9) Sea paddles whenever it could be managed. (Easy for you on Skye, lucky person). The salt water disinfects the feet.
We live in a very rural area and it just wasn't possible to keep Binnie away from all the other bacteria loaded things like manure without making her life really unhappy. We relied on the washing to protect her. But I never walked her in fields that had been newly muckspread or sprayed. It sounds as if you have similar problems but I think it's important to keep your dog keen on life and robbing him of his favourite walk would be worse than dealing with the consequences. I wouldn't dream of contradicting your vet but I really think it would be helpful to discuss the antibiotic route rather than relying purely on steroids. I must emphasize that we never managed to 'cure' the problem but we did manage to control it. We reduced the cysts from being constantly there to an outbreak two or three times a year. I am so sorry for you both. It is a rotten, rotten situation to have to deal with. I could have cried so often to see my happy, lively little dog in such distress. But don't give up - there are things that will help and you just have to investigate what is right for you. There is loads more on the web about interdigital cysts than there was when we started. Maybe you need to point your vet at it. I really hope to have better news from you soon.
