Wounds above paws

Hello vets, We adopted our dog Freddie from Turkey around 6 months ago and we love having him around. Unfortunately he has had some wounds on his back legs since we have had him. Some of them have healed, but then a new wound starts to form again after a while. Our main problem now is a very big wound right above his metacarpal pad on his right back paw. It started out as a small wound, but because of licking and walking it keeps opening up and getting bigger. Especially because it rubs during walking when using a shoe or bandage. We’ve tried pain killers, anti allergy pills and anti itching medication but they all don’t seem to work. His left back paw has been doing a lot better, but since a couple days a wound is starting to form there too. It looks like how his right paw looked a while ago. We’ve been using a balm to keep it hydrated, as we thought it might be due to dry skin. We’re quite certain he hasn’t been licking this paw, as we’re monitoring him very closely to make sure he doesn’t lick his right paw with the big wound. Does anyone know if there’s maybe something with his skin that can cause these wounds? We’re out of ideas on how to avoid these from happening…

Hello - I'm worried about these lesions.  Firstly, that must be painful;  they are deep.  Dogs often show pain by licking themselves.  Secondly, they may well be secondary to something - such as infection or autoimmune disease, cancer, vasculopathy (eg Alabama rot) etc.   I cannot diagnose from here but it truely doesnt sound trivial and we would strongly reccommend takimg this patient to the vets for assessment as soon as possible, perhaps as an emergency.  Please will you let us know how you get on?

(For emergencies, vets will triage the case for you over the phone to determine how urgently they feel you need to be seen).

I am further concerned, if this is a dog foot, that I cannot see the toes or orientate the limb properly from this photograph.  Your vet needs to check this lesion.