my dog keeps licking her paw

Question
My dog has developed a red lump on her front left paw. She keeps licking it. I took her to the Vet, he prescribed animax ointment to put on the lump ones a day for one week. The medication has not help since the lump still looks the same. What could be the cause of this lump?

Answer
Sounds like your dog has a acral lick granuloma. These are usually self-induced. What that means is something, nerve pain in the paw or arthritis, has caused an irritation, and the only way a dog knows how to deal with it is by licking the area where it hurts over and over again until a lump forms.

Antibiotic creams won't do a thing for them. Once started these are very hard to get rid of. Usually surgery to remove the lump and/or steroid injections in the area are the only things that help.

The underlying cause of the pain needs to be treated also and that will help remove the source that started the licking in the first place.

Here is an image of a dog with a lick granuloma:
(link to image I should say)
http://www.thepetcenter.com/exa/lick.html
there is an article about it also. Be sure to read the lower area and causes.

Your dog's lump will look different of course. They come in all sizes!
I hope this helps-but you need to get back to the vet and ask them if this is what your dog has and how to start treatment.

Sadly, there is no long time cure for some dogs, but at the end of the article here you can see that some treatments will work.

First thing you need to do is get a correct diagnosis before it becomes a giant wound to deal with.

I hope this helps some. Please let me know what you find out.