We are starting to wonder if we have a problem in our (working) Cockers as since having her one and only litter (at 4 years old), our bitch and her now 1 year old daughter have both had long term bouts of sores on their pads causing lameness.  The sores are wet, red and swollen and occur on or inbetween the pads and seem to only affect the front feet.  Our vet seems at a complete loss and 3 at the practice have now seen them.  Antibiotics haven't worked, neither has shaving the area really close, using steroidal creams, wound powder, iodine and various other options (including keeping boots on) under the vet's advice.  Grass seeds have also been eliminated as the cause. We're starting to think it's just an ongoing 'spaniel foot problem' we have but it's very frustrating.

One thing we haven't tried yet is camrosa ointment that we've seen advertised but thinking of giving it a go, anyone had any success with it? Thanks in advance

it could simply be a fungal infection try rubbing lamisl cream on their feet for a week or athleats foot powder to see if it helps.

Has your vet done any blood allery tests or a skin scrape from the feet?

Evening primrose oil capsules are very good for skin problems as its a natural anti-histamine :)

Hope you manage to get to the cause of the irritation.

Could they be interdigital furuncles.  This information might help?

http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/grooming/intercysts.htm

Hi Molezak, we used Camrosa a couple of years ago with very good results (nothing like your problem though), as your Vet has tried several things I would give it a go.  Phone the lady at Camrosa and explain the problem, she's very very nice and helpful. 

Thank you for your replies, we going to give Camrosa a shot as it came today and will post the results (if any) in due course!

Iv used it to no effect antibiotics and sudocreme worked a treat for one of our dogs however it wasn't for feet. I know of some people who sware by the stuff but it just didnt seem to work for me (its quite expensive).

Has it occurred in any of her other puppies?  It might actually be a local problem...

What sort of walks do you do?  What terrain?  Are there any common patterns with time of year, type of walk?  Do both dogs get it at exactly the same time?  For instance we used to have a problem with our mongrel after we started walking through water that had run off a muck heap - apparently cow urine is very acid.  Another of my dogs is allergic to some grass pollen, which is worse at certain times of the year.  Finding the exact cause can be quite difficult without further testing, and of course any form of irritation can result in your dogs over doing the licking and biting which will cause the symptoms you describe.

In the meantime I'd make sure that both walk through a foot bath of dilute Hibiscrub on their return from a walk, and before bed at night.  You can use a cat litter tray which is quite a handy walk-through size or use a potting tray from the garden centre if you want something bigger.  Do make sure to dry their feet quite carefully as damp paws may exacerbate the problem.  Use a hair dryer if they'll let you, or get one of those highly absorbent towels

I'd try that for a while (2 weeks) before adding any other creams or powders but even if you do decide to use an ointment later it really helps to have the area properly clean and free of all irritants first :)