One of my dogs keeps getting interdigital cysts. We're able to get rid of them pretty quickly, but they keep recurring. Any ideas as to why? Some sort of allergy? Abrasions? I'd appreciate any thoughts.

I have been dealing with this same situation for the past 4 years. Been to the dermatologist with my guy. I've tried oral medication, topical ointments, foot soaks, you name it I've tried it. Everything I've done for him hasn't taken the problem away. I can always tell when it's ready to burst, I'll see him licking at it. Once it bursts the pressure is released and I'll apply Gold Bond to the cyst to dry it up. My guy's pretty good with not licking the gold bond off, I think he enjoy's the "soothing" feeling.
I can really feel for you and what your dog is going through.
I often wonder if this problem could be due to hormones? My guy will be going in to be neutered soon, so it'll be interesting to see if anything will change with his cysts after that.

Had a boy like this. Stopped getting them when we went corn free. Not sure if it was coincidence but worth a try.

I have a dog who had one for a couple months.
It took 2 rounds of Simplicef with Tritop ointment. First round was 10 days & the cyst was back in a couple weeks. Second time was 3 weeks & its been a couple months now & all seems well.

Vet says if they are continously recurring they may have to be surgically removed.

No corn in his diet

We were recently told by a vet at Cornell that reoccurring interdigital Cysts can indicate low
thyroid. In our case vet was spot on.

My chocolate boy had interdigital cysts on both front paws off and on for a couple of years. After trying to clear them with the reg. vet (antibiotics, surgery) we ended going to a vet derm. These nasty buggers are not caused by an infection but they can become infected so that's why they seem to go away after a course of antibiotics. It's an underlying physical irritant, such as ingrown hairs, that cause them.

My boy had laser surgery done and so far so good. I feed him TOTW pac. stream for protein allergy. His thyroid is right on. He's yeasty so he's on a daily dose of Ketocanozole.

My vet derm that did the laser surgery studied under Dr. Duclos a vet derm. from N. WA state. Dr. Duclos pioneered this treatment. Try googling: Dr. Duclos + interdigital cysts. There is an article describing this procedure @ http://www.vetcontact.com/dermatology. you may have to search this site for the article. There are several past posts on this forum about this same subject.

Good luck!

I had a boy that was plagued by these on both front feet.

The cause is the conformation of the dog and how they stand on their foot pads, or actually stand incorrectly on their foot pads. Standing incorrectly on the foot pads causes callouses to form over areas that have hair follicles. These follicles basically get closed off but the hairs continue to grow inside and cause a cyst. The only way to get rid of them and to stop the cysts is to do laser surgery.

We had Dr. Duclos laser the hair follicles in between his toes and he is fine now.