# Large, Red, Smelly Bump on Top of Dog's Paw



## DanielH (Aug 12, 2012)

Hi everyone! First post and I'm pretty desperate for an answer. I hope someone on here can help me because it would be a huge financial burden to have to take my dog to the vet. Here is the problem: my 5 year old male Rottweiler has a large red bump on top of his paw and it smells awful. I just noticed it about two days ago. Also, he broke one of his finger nails and the quick is exposed--could these be related? They happened around the same time. He keeps licking both the bump and the messed up finger nail. These are both on his front right paw. The messed up fingernail is visible in the first picture.














Does anyone have any idea what these could be? And what my possible treatment methods are? He's limping pretty badly on that foot.


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## spotted nikes (Feb 7, 2008)

You need to see a vet. Smelly generally means infected. Infections can go septic which can kill a dog. Right now a vet bill would be probably cheap...vet visit plus antibiotics. If you wait, it could mean anesthetic, debriding, IV antibiotics, overnight vet stay, then follow up.

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## DanielH (Aug 12, 2012)

Thank you for your reply. I figured I'd wind up taking him to the vet but wanted to ask the community here in case y'all had any experience with something like this. The smell is really what caused me to worry. 
Again, thanks for your concern.


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## Max and Me (Aug 19, 2011)

A trip to the vet is definately in order.


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## vi-catahoulas (Jul 30, 2012)

I'm not advising against taking your dog to the vet and it's hard tell the problem on a forum but if it was an abscess (guessing it might be ) I would hot compress it and try draining it myself but thats just me. I've had horses for 25 years so unless it's MAJOR I deal with it myself.
Also looking at the pic and considering he broke a nail he might have broken his toe and have a bone chip.


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## spotted nikes (Feb 7, 2008)

I recommend a vet because I had a dog that broke a nail, and he was hurting, so I took him to the vet. Vet clipped nail back to the base, since that is where is was broken, and he thought the movement was hurting. After a week, he was still sore, so vet X rayed it. Turns out he had a benign tumor growing in the nail bed, that was killing the bone due to blocking off the blood supply. He had to have his toe amputated. Dog recovered fine.


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## jersey_gray (Dec 8, 2011)

Vet, for sure. Soaking his foot for 15 minutes in epsom salt and hot water (not hot enough to burn him obviously but it should be very warm water) could draw out the infection. At least that's what we did with horses with abscessed hoofs.


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