Four year old lab mix. Started licking the left front paw about two weeks ago, now the fur between two toes is stained and the skin looks pink and damp. I have checked between every toe with a torch, no thorn, no cut, no swelling I can feel, and he does not react when I press it. He only does it in the evenings when we are sitting down. Walks are normal, no limping at all.
Two weeks of licking to the point of damp pink skin is worth an appointment rather than more torch inspections, mostly because once the skin is broken and constantly wet it can become its own problem regardless of what started it. That part tends not to resolve on its own.
Things the vet will likely ask about, so it helps to have answers ready: when it started relative to any food change, whether it is worse after walks in long grass, whether he does it on other paws at all, and whether the licking stops if he is distracted. Evening-only licking is a genuinely useful detail — the vets I work with take that as a hint but not proof either way.
In the meantime, stopping the licking is most of the battle. A sock taped loosely above the paw or a proper cone in the evenings, plus drying the paw thoroughly after every walk.
Take a photo every day too. Slow changes are impossible to judge by memory and a two-week photo series tells a much clearer story than a description.
Evening-only was the bit I thought was irrelevant. Booked for Thursday and I will bring the timeline written down.
One practical thing: if you use a sock, do not tape it tight and do not leave it on unsupervised overnight. I made a mess of that once and made the whole thing worse.
Evening-only, while everyone sits down, is also the classic shape of a boredom or self-soothing habit. That does not mean it is not physical — an itch can start it and boredom keeps it going. When ours got into a licking loop, adding a ten minute sniffy walk after dinner and giving him a chew during TV time cut it a lot. I would still get the paw looked at first.
This is a fair point and worth pursuing in parallel. Behavioural and physical causes overlap constantly with paw licking, which is why it is such an annoying thing to sort out.
He is definitely under-stimulated in the evenings, so this may be part of it either way.
@ring_dip_dana · 6mo ago
Ours did this for a whole winter and it turned out to be the road salt on the pavements. Rinsing and drying his feet the moment we got in, every single walk, sorted it within about ten days. Worth ruling out anything seasonal that lands on the paws before assuming it is internal.
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