I noticed my 3 year old poodle licking his back paw this morning and went to investigate, he has a flat hard substance on the top part of his rear right paw, (not a mat) it almost feels like sap that has hardened, but close to the skin, maybe 1/4 " clearance. (we have no trees with sap) It doesn't seem to bother him besides the licking (which would mean it is bothering him, but he is not pulling on it.) His normal appt. with the vet is in 2 days. I sprayed some bitter apple on it, so that when I am gone at work (4 hours) he doesn't mess with it. Do you think I should try to soak it in warm water now to see if it loosens up or just leave it alone until a professional can see it? I did cut away a little hair to see if I could see what it was, but didn't want to go any further. He has very sensitive skin, if that makes a difference in your answers, and I can't get an appt. before Wednesday.
Thanks for you comments.
I don't know if it matters, but it is 2:25 P.M. 3/30/09 where I am from.

You can call your groomer. It is a good optio until you can get to your vet.

Thank you, but I can't get my groomer here before the vet appt. She is a mobile groomer, because I don't want the dogs to sit around in a kennel waiting.

I managed to get an appt for Tuesday. I'll let you know what it was, if they know. Poor thing will probably get shaved.

Over two weeks later, he is starting to recover. They wrapped it once (after shaving) and then shaved more and wrapped it again. Yesterday they took the last wrap off and he is wearing his party hat, so there will be no licking. They had no idea what it was, but there was no tumor. I'm switching his dog food and see if that makes a difference with the sensitive skin issue.

How often do you get your poodle clipped?

They can get clipper rash easily and my theory is that its foot has been clipper rashed and he has been licking it and making the rash/wound worse.

Try usig an antiseptic cream on the area and if there is no improvement then a vet visit is needed to make sure it is not a skin allergy or other skin condition :)

They get clipped every couple months, but never close. It's always puppy/lamb cut.

My poodles are in puppy trim but their feet face and tail bases are all clipped with a number 30 blade which is very short, that is the most ommon trim as it prevents matting between the toes and keeps their faces clean.
I'm assuming you leave the hair on your boys face and feet the same length as the body?

Give the antiseptic treatment a go to prevent infection of the skin. There are many possilbe things it could be from mites, dermatitis, mange, bites/stings, chewing out of habit. The grooming just seemed the most likely to me being a poodle :)

Sorry - edited bacause I completely missed one of your posts! I am having a really bad couple of days on here not reading things properly, again I appologise.

Did the vet take skin swabs and do tests?

No, or if she did she didn't charge me for them. She shaved carefully, guessed maybe he was bit by an insect of some kind. She was not sure, so she put on the cream and wrapped it up real good. (it was more on the upper ankle area than the paw) after a week she said it was looking much better, but she wrapped it again for another week. He was on antibiotics the whole time. I can't see any infection on it now, but if I don't put the party hat on him, he licks it raw in 3 minutes.

Poor thing, it's good that it is healing but he may have developed a habit to licking that area.
My mothers poodle Shae got bitten by a wasp several years back and she still licks the spot where the bite was, she just got so used to licking it she never stopped.

Using the bitters sprays is a good deterant, did it work very well for you last time you used it?

Yes, it worked great, but now they want the area dry for a while, so until he gets a little more fur on his paw, I can't use it.

Try putting it around the area, not actually on the spot where the wound was. When you watch a dog lick a spot they generally lick a rather large area so by putting it next to the wound he will probably still get a yukky taste.

Just something to try :)

Sounds like a great idea, I will try that and watch him like a hawk. I really don't think he likes the hat.
Thanks,
Dahlia

Some will tolerate them but none of them like the hats.
Let me know how that goes, if it doesn't we will have to re-group for some more ideas :)

It was going great for about 4 hours. I sprayed the bitter on his paw and then watched him He didn't like it. I checked on him every 30 secs or so because I was cleaning. Every time I checked he was just relaxing wondering why I kept looking after him. After a while he started checking on me, wondering why I was'nt checking on him. He was my great handsome boy until Daddy came home and had a problem with Mom (not me). I only not paid attention for maybe 5 minutes, and I saw blood coming to the surface. I don't know if he reacted to his Dad upset or if he just thought "hey, I've got time now" but I freaked out and put the cone back on, then re-powdered the area. His doctor is out sick and I left her a message to please call me.
I noticed that the inside toe seemed fused to the other (almost like the hard substance that I originally talked about) (this was after I put the spray on, and was worried I did something wrong) I wanted to soak it and see what happened, but with the Doc not there I want to wait. I have cream and drying power, but don't want to use until I talk to her. I have used the powder, because I thought it was necessary. The cream is a prescription.
His toe seems to have separated from the other at this point, maybe it was just dried blood or puss (I hate that word) I think because he was running around and (oh, my g-d) scratching like there was no tomorrow. (but he can't scratch with the cone on) I watched when he scratched to see if that was the problem, but no.
I changed both dogs food today to a all natural, that I can return if they don't like it. I was told it was very good for Dogs with sensenvitive skin.
I'm not sure what I'm trying to say, except that I wanted to let you know what was happening. Sorry if I rambled on, I'm just so worried and I know that there is nothing I can do right now.
The only good thing is that he doesn't seem to be in any pain what so ever. Just me.

I'm sorry to hear that Just Dahlia, hopefully your vet can get back to you soon as I can't really advise you on what to do without knowing what is actually wrong and I don't want to tell you the wrong thing.
Sounds to me like you were right about the toes being fused together though, if the wound is open it would be weeping and would have dried hard.
I hope you can get to the bottom of this soon, and thank you for worrying so much about your dog :)

She did get back to me and I was allowed to put the animax on it and if necessary the drying power. We take the cone off occaisionally and watch him (after putting the bitters on) He is doing good and I think the puss (or whatever) is starting to separate. I massage it a little when I put the medicine on and it seems to be helping with breaking up what ever is there. I will bring him back in the DR. in a couple days if I don't see any more improvement. The doctor didn't understand why there was a new dilemma, but advised me on what to do.

Sounds like you are doing everything you can :)

Let me know if it gets any better in a few days.

100 % better today, I just need to keep hat on at night and when I'm gone (not trusting enough)
Edit. He has been caught licking for a second or so, but no blood coming to the surface.

That's great news! Hopefully given a chance to fully heal he will forget about it :)

Try giving him some chew toys like a rubber kong filled with food, they spend hours playing with them and it will take his mind off it :)