Paw wont heal on my dog

Question
Ellen, I am truly so scared for my dog. This stray dog came up right after my husband died and I felt like God had sent him to me..enough of that, I just wanted you to understand how much he means to me.  This started in August,(he was about 6 months old) he came home with a scrapped place right above his foot.  Just looked like he had scrapped the hair off.He started chewing on it, got very bad in a matter of a few days.I took him to the vet, he ex-rayed,took samples and sent to the lab.It came back with the names of the bacteria and so we put him on antibotics and Derma-G*0-2.  It was still swollen and bleeding.  The vet called it fistulas, (probley spelled wrong) as in trails, the veins are weak and breaking down, as I understand it. Sent another sample,sent to lab,all bacteria was gone.They thought it was a servere reaction to a spider or insect bite.They suggested steriods and the Derma-g*O-2.Said it might take 6 months.He is a very large dog (looks like a yellow lab)right now he weighs around 120 lbs,because of the steriods.He has been on steriods for 5 months.The foot looks better but the fistulas keep popping up,bleeding and now he has a big knot where the joint of his foot is. I thought about amputation but I wonder if that will heal.I don't really want to do that but I have already spent around $700 on this.Do you know of any thing I can do?My vet does not know anything else to do.He calls himself  country vet and has never seen anything like this so maybe he hasn't kept up on things.I hope you can help me.

Answer
Hi Judy!

Sounds like you need a SECOND OPINION! :) and thats OK!

Many dogs get whats called a 'lick granuloma' a self induced wound that takes FOREVER to heal.  

Go ahead and make an appointment with a different vet and for now put a sock over that joint that he is licking at. Keep it clean with an antibacterial and keep it dry.

You may want to check out this site for some more information.

http://www.skinvet.com/diseasedetail.asp?index=2

Hope that helps some!