For what has seemed to be a month now, my dog Penny has been licking and gnawing at her front paws. At first, it was only her right one but for the past few days she’s also been attacking her left one too.

Unfortunately, this isn’t unusual. In fact, I’m writing this blog entry hoping someone will stumble upon it and give me some insight or advice on why my dog has this problem.

Every summer, without fail, Penny gets what I call a crater (or a popped blister I guess, but I never see a blister to begin with) on at least one of her paws. Here’s a couple pictures so you can see what I’m talking about:

A crater in the fleshy pad of my dog's paw.

A wider view showing the area where the crater occurs.

It should be noted that these pictures are from 2 years ago!  They eventually go away on their own, but I really want to know what the cause is.  A few details I have noticed:

1. They happen every summer, and only in the summer time.
2. She gets them in the same general area.
3. Jesse, our black Labrador retriever, never has any issues with her paws and they always go on walks together.
4. Penny licks at the wound constantly, making it harder for the area to dry up, scab and heal.

After a lot of research on the internet, there seems to be a few possibilities as to what the culprit may be.

Allergies

Is Penny allergic to something in the ground?  If so, why only during the summer?  Is it a special fertilizer used only in summer time on grass?  Is it a specific type of grass or pollen that is released during the summer season?

Heat Blisters

Are they heat blisters?  It does get awfully hot here in Los Angeles during the summer.  Is the sidewalk so hot that she actually gets sunburns on her paws?  She is very fair skin with pink paws while Jesse, the lab, has black paws.   Is this why Jesse isn’t affected while Penny suffers?  Though we try to not take them out when it’s too hot, and the dogs will usually let us know if the ground is too hot by shuffling around and lifting their paws up, maybe Penny’s doesn’t realize when her sensitive skin is being burnt?  And why is the wound/blister/crater at the back/top of her paw which doesn’t come into contact with the ground as much as the other areas of her feet?

Fungal Infection

I’ve seen some websites mention a type of fungal infection of the paws, especially on dogs with short, bristly fur like Penny, but I’m not convinced.  What is strange though…

Abnormal Fur Growth and Irritation

if you look at the picture of the paw crater, there’s short little fur coming in where the wound is.  Why is fur growing there, underneath where the skin of her paw pad was?  Is this normal?  Or maybe she can feel the short, sharp fur growing in and the crater is the result of her gnawing and licking to ease the itchiness/irritation?  Maybe similar to how dogs have shedding and growing seasons, this area of fur only grows in summer?

I am leaning towards the heat blister theory because Penny is basically a ginger.  She has reddish hair, a white belly, and pink features.  Some dogs with her fur color will have a normal black or dark brown nose and dark paw pads, but she’s not dark anywhere—pink, red and white all the way!  Because of this, I think Penny’s ultra-sensitive to sunlight and heat.  Even though Jesse is black all over, albeit for a small white chest blaze, with long, thick fur she seems to handle the heat much better than Penny.  Whereas Penny will be reluctant to go outside when it’s hot and then will lag behind during our walks, Jesse will be running ahead and enjoying every minute of it.

Please, if any dog owners reading this have similar experiences or insight, leave a comment or send me a message!  I’d love to get a definitive answer to this.

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