This time of year it seems Addie is prone to have an irritation between her 'toes' on just her two front paws. You don't notice it immediately..only if her paw spreads out a little, then it looks red. What I start to notice is her licking...not as if it is painful, more as if it itches. It's never on her back paws. IF she lets me, Neosporin works wonders. Also, I gave her a little benedryl and she totally left them alone....but I'm not going to do that all the time. The problem (besides the obvious harm to her) is that I have them trained to stop and let me wipe the mud off their paws before coming in. She wants no part of that when this irritation is present. I try to be very gentle...because I also think being wet may be an irritant. Someone told me their vet gave them antibiotics for a similar condition. Is anyone familiar with this? If so....is there something I can do that doesn't require oral antibiotics? I believe in oral antibiotics as a last resort for myself...so that's why I also tend to believe that for my pets. When this happened last winter I thought it looked like what a person might get in the way of chapped skin. She is never around road salt (we should be so lucky to ever get our roads cleared..lol) THANKS! She is now 3 yrs. old and didn't have this problem the first year it turned colder.