Chihuahua's Injured Paw

This is my first thread and I just need some answers.
My Chihuahua, Roxy, has an injured paw and is in need of some help.
I would take a picture but I can't find any cords to link up the cpu and camera together...

I'll do my best to explain.
On her right front paw, one of her 'fingers' is very red, swollen, and is in need of recovery.
It has gotten worst overnight as it became larger and seems to look infected.
She isn't limping and can walk fine.
She does however lick it occasionaly and when you confront her about it, she tends to hide it as if there is nothing wrong.

What should I do?

If it looks infected you should take her to a vet for antibiotics. I'm not one to rush to a vet every time something's wrong, but infections are nothing to mess with.
In the meantime try soaking her paw in a handful of Epsom salt and a basin of warm water. After doing that inspect her paw for any splinters and other foreign bodies.

In my experience if a dog hides their injured paw when you reach for it, it's not a sign nothing's wrong, it's so you don't touch it.

Sorry, double post.

Thanks very much for the reply

Could it be a sting or a bite? How is the nail? Have you examined the inside of the pad to see if there is a splinter or a cut starting from there and creating an abcess? Could it be a growth of some kind or an allergy? Antibiotics would be the answer for an infection. I had a cat once with a toe as big as a grape full of infection and didn't have vet money at that time so I filled a pan with hot water, slide my fingers down both sides of his foot to make sure the water would not burn him, (it would burn me first if that was the case) and soaked his foot 4 times a day for 10 minutes each time. ./...dip dip dip dip until finally I could keep my fingers and his foot in the water. By the second day of treatment his toe was back to normal. Heat will kill infection, but you need a very tolerate animal to let you do this. It won't help if there is any foreign object in there. It won't help if it was caused by a sting of a bee or wasp, or a bite of some kind. it will only make it worse in that case. You really need to examine closely even with a magnifying glass to see the cause of the problem. . We have a not for profit clinic in this city provided by the humane society. Maybe your city has something like this, or many times a vet will work with you. Good luck.

You certainly need to take her to the et to get her looked at. Once the vet figures out what is wrong you are going to need her to stop licking her paw area. You will something to cover the area.

We have medical dog shoes that are ideal for this. You can also use an ace bandage, tapped up sock or something else that will stay on to keep her from licking at all the time.

That is after you take her to the vet. It could be any number of problems, allergies, a fungus infection, etc... that will need to be treated.

Thanks very much again, very helpful
I will certainly check out her pad to see if there is any bite or sting of somesort causing the problem.
But for now, we bandaged her foot so she is still able to walk, and we put some cream on her pad to see if it will help reduce spreading and/or solve the problem completely.

Parry05

Please let us know how she is doing. We do worry when we don't hear back.

She is doing fine, the pad is still quite large and red.
Right now we will be attempting to dip her paw into hot water.
We will be adding epsom salt to the water to help remove any infection.

How long has her paw been swollen and infected?