
Can he possibly have become allergic to anything else? Allergies can appear after years of not being affected. I ask because my dog has grass pollen allergies and has, in the last week had a big flare up, with the red, itchy skin between her toes, and oozing patches on her toes where we failed to spot her biting them. ..and this is after having had three different types of steroid injection a fortnight ago to try and reduce the effect over the summer. The steroids do help - she would be much worse without them, but there is a lot of grass pollen in particular about at the moment. Cloudy skies, wind and heavy showers seem to make the pollen levels worse rather than better. Also, wet grass leads to wet paws, which, if the skin is broken (for whatever reason), obviously feel much more sore and itchy. Drying the feet really well helps, but may be painful too.
We use Fuciderm gel (from vet) on the sore spots, but have to put on little homemade cotton booties to stop the gel being licked off. Also Malaseb shampoo. I have tried to do without steroids, but the itchies get so bad that it just makes my dog miserable without them all summer. Overnight is an excellent time to dowse with Fuciderm and put on the booties (held on securely with double-sided velcro), but I had to re-gel and re-boot this morning, as she wasn't going to leave those itchy feet alone!
No solution of course, but just some management ideas.
Claire (and Bracken the itchy fox terrier, who is currently sporting very fetching black cotton twill booties on her back feet!)