9 month of german shepard chewing on foot
 

I need help. I have a 9 month old German shepherd and he chews on one of his front paws his left one. It is only this one paw and in between the pads underside it is red and looks raw. The vet has given his antibiotics and did not clear it up. Now in the last month and a half he has been scratching his ears and neck and his ears look a little pink he has scratched them so bad they have scabs and has discharge coming from his eyes. We woke up one morning and one of his eyes was swollen and it went down within a few hours and that is when his eyes started the discharge never before. I need to know what it could be. I have switched hos treat, switched his bowls from metal to plastic and I am out of ideas and all the vet wants to do it put him on antibiotics.

Help!!!

What are you feeding him? It sounds like allergies to me.

I would stick with the stainless steel bowls too.

By scratching his ear with his foot he could be transferring a yeast infection from his ear to his foot. Then he rubs his face with his foot and transfers it elsewhere, maybe, could be, my VEt said when I had that problem.

Personally I did not hesitate to give the two week dose of antibiotic, My dog had not yet transferred an infection from his ears to anywhere but I wanted to forestall that possibility. Actually it was a 3 week dose because the first antibiotic did not work as well as hoped and we had to use a second one. They were ear drops, not oral.

I realize that is probably exactly why some folks are reluctant to use anitbiotic at all, because some strains of some things have become resistant. Plus the chance of tummy upset and other side effects. We did not have that and it would have been temporary anyway. It's long term antibiotic use that is frightening to me, not a couple of weeks.

With my dog it was just a "thing" he developed. He stayed on his same treats, same food, same dish and once it cleared up it didn't come back.

For you to consider. When it gets to their eyes it really scares me.

Second the question "what are you feeding him?" it could have alot to do with it. Sometimes you need the antibiotics to manage it and then determine where the problems are coming from. Good luck

Worried
 

We were feeding puppy chow..now just switched to taste of the wild grain free a few days ago..have noticed a few more little sores on his neck kinda like pimples...also his eyes are kinda swollen and around outer corner look kinda deformed like they are swollen in patched small patches....he scratches his neck alot his ear are healing now so he has been leaving then alone...so worries still waiting on a call back from the vet on.what to do.

Puppy Chow can cause all these things, so glad you changed. It will take awhile to get that stuff out of the system. Hopefully he does well on the TOTW. GSDs have such sensitive digestive systems.

The vet should check for signs of ear infection, yeast, etc though.

sounds like it may be allergies.. i would try switching first to a grain free food and if that doesn't work, to a different meat source (ie, he may be allergic to chicken). GSDs do have a very sensitive stomach and our guy did not do too well on any commercial dog food, we had to switch to raw and glad we did so.

[QUOTE=Masha;1032895]... GSDs do have a very sensitive stomach and our guy did not do too well on any commercial dog food, we had to switch to raw and glad we did so.[/QUOTE]

Yep, had to go to homecooked for mine. Poultry is a big no-no for him too.