We have a 6 year old bitch, who has within the last six months start licking and chewing her paws intermitantly. They look yeasty to me, no interdigital cysts the skin between the toes has a "rough" tongue like look. Have been to the vet have soaked feet in epsom salts, put blue coat and socks on (ruined a carpet)also given her derafort. Our vet does not seem as bothered by it as we are, she says her ears are fine and she really has a beautiful coat, it just involves her feet. Life in socks(boots are too hot)or an e-collar is no life at all. She is on a high quality Chicken and Rice food, we eliminated food with corn but no improvement. We have 3 options for a different brand of food-Origen 3 fish and potatoe, Go Natural or Eukanuba's new line Naturally Wild in the small community we live. A friend with Westie's did the allergen testing panel for about $400.00 per dog. By the time we have changed foods and the time involved before you know it is working, the allergen panel looks the a quicker more conclusive solution but is more expensive. Anyone else done the Allergen testing route with good success? Or does it come back and tell they are allergic to grass or something almost impossible to deal with. I will also say raw is not an option for us. Thank you for your help. Looking forward to your replies.

I would look at other things also like fabric softner, lawn sprays, etc.
Then I'd go to the Derm vet for the skin test.

Try soaking her feet in betadine solution, dry them and spray with meconazole nitrate. It doesn't stain and doesn't taste very good. Possibly it's a fungus.

I get the brand Ting at family Dollar. It's for jock itch.

Could she be allergic to the chicken?

We have a couple of girls who are allergic to chicken based kibble as well as raw chicken. They don't chew at their skin but they get very yeasty ears. If I keep them on a kibble like Taste of The Wild, Pacific Stream, there ears are always clear and clean as a whistle !!

I too had that with my girl, she had bad ears and biting her feet on ProPlan chicken-switched her to ProPlan Sensitive skin and she is fine.
Try a food that does not have chicken first, if that doesn't work try going to the vet and trying the Science Diet either for allergies (where the protein sources are broken down so small the body doesn't react against them) or the WD. My cousins dog licked his feet non-stop to where they would bleed, he had to wear boots and could not go for walks, Long story short he ended putting on so much weight that the vet put him on WD-all the itching and biting stopped and they were able to stop the allergy shots etc. that he had been on for years.

One of our youngsters had some sort of reaction on a show trip we made - the skin between her toes was red and hot and itchy. I don't know what she came in contact with, but besides the benedryl, we used PredNef powder between her toes. The prednisone helps to relieve any sensation to itch and the issue subsided in a few days.

Switched to Origen 6 fish about a year ago. It is not cheap, but I am no longer spending money on ear stuff, coat stuff or vitamins/supplements (or vet visits). Everyone remarks on their coats. No smelly ears or itchy feet- also have raised 3 litters on the stuff. Expensive but worth every penney.

Always reading about the Mercury problems affecting so many things, anyone have any repro or infertility problems with their dogs who eat fish food?

What is WD?

Most allergies in Labs are not food related; so you can spend the next 10 years switching dog food and if it is a food allergy then you are lucky to find it. Environmental allergies rear their ugly heads at about the age your puppy is and they are becoming increasingly more common in Labs. But, IF the puppy is allergic to grasses, etc. there are things you can do. I have had two allergic bitches in my kennel over the past 19 years. Both were better after they were spayed. Both have done better as they have gotten older. One bitch is treated with antihistamines during the spring and summer when she is the most reactive. That seems to work well enough for her. The other has been on shots and now has one once per month that her owner administers. The shots are not expensive.

But, of course, you won't know how to treat your puppy until you have a full allergy workup done. I feel your pain; there is nothing worse than watching a puppy itch so much that she cries.

These are deep water fish, not shore fish. Human grade- no ethoxyquin. Anything other than human grade MUST be treated with ethoxyquin.

Grass allergy is huge- but you are wrong about the food. Corn is a big allergen- so is wheat and soy. There are also many natural routes to go other than antihistamines which suppress the immune system. If the dog is tested and it is grass or tree pollen, not the food, I would look to a good homeopath as well as getting the dog on immune builders like astragalus. If you raise your puppies on whole foods, chances are you won't have the pollen allergies anyway.

I believe that Chicken as become such a hot spot for humans and pets is because of all the antibiotics and drugs that the farmers are putting in their livestock. This has been going on for a very long time. It seems like humans are getting more and more cancers than before as well as a rise in our pets. It has something to do with our diets and our dog's diet intake. All I know is that my dogs are not allowed to eat chicken of any kind and I check the ingredients in their kibble when I do a change over. For now they are doing the best on "Taste of The Wild ".
The more breeders continue to breed from dogs who have these allergy issues, the more common it is in our breed or any other breed. It's keeping the vets and specialists busy and in business.

There is to much fish in dog foods now. The earth's waters are to contaminated to be eating fish everyday and Taste of the Wild has ethoxyquin in there fish meal.

We just went through months of the feet issue with my girl. I got her back from a farm home 1-1/2 years ago. They were red. (She also smelled like a barn). Other than put her on our food and our floors/matting etc, I did nothing and they improved greatly. But they came back with a vengeance after she went away to shows and especially if it was wet and her feet were damp. It took me a while to figure out that it was worse when she was going to shows at agricultural grounds. Anyway, my vet said that this is one long and hard thing to treat. We initially assumed yeast, and there was SOME there and we treated for it. But then there was bacteria and both my vet and a friend of mine's derm. vet agree that this kind of thing requires a long course of antibiotics. So six weeks later, her feet are as white as the driven snow. My vet now believes there was either a bacteria or maybe one combined with a fungus that she is quite sensitive to and she may never really have fully gotten over it on her own then this wet damp spring, combined with being crated more at a show (maybe stress?) caused it to really flare up. Vet said she should get ceph 2 weeks PAST cure, so she's on her last 2 weeks now but looks great. She's only had one ear infection in her life and has a gorgeous coat and I just really didn't think it seemed like what we traditionally call "allergies." I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we've got it.

Vet used scotch tape between her toes and put that on the slide under the microscope to find the bacteria which we believed was causing the redness. Good luck with your dog's feet.