Franklin Had Surgery Today - Update

Franklin's paw- with fading blood boil

Franklin, our 8 year old Dachshund Franklin had surgery today on his left front paw. For the last 2 1/2 years a recurring blood boil has plagued him, and caused pain.
  He had surgery on it in 2012, and some little fragments of something were found in it (likely plant matter from his digging), but it didn't cure it.
  The boil comes back about every month, then bursts and bleeds. Whenever he's developed them, I (Rob) have soaked them or cleaned them with hydrogen peroxide, dried it, put antibiotic oinment on it, and bandaged it. Typically I did this about 4-6 times a day.
  It takes about a month to go away and then returns in a couple of weeks. Whenever they have recurred, I've gotten prescription pain meds from the vet, so he wouldn't be in pain.

   IMPORTANT NOTE TO DOG OWNERS ABOUT PAIN MEDICATIONS:   25 mg of Rimadyl (twice daily) is the medication I've been giving him, and our vet charges $26 for just 14 pills (7 days' worth). Considering you can't give a dog Ibuprofen or any other human pain med- you have no choice. I didn't mind paying for it, but Tom checked on-line and you CAN order them for a much LESS COST - but they will call your vet to verify (which is fine).

Franklin favoring his left paw

   After consulting a second vet, who also couldn't determine why this keeps happening, we decided to take him to a surgeon, who was removing the problem area (webbing) between the two toes.
  We know that something troubled him there and he would lick it, and the licking is what caused the blood boil to return.

  UPDATE: At 7 p.m. today, Feb. 7, 2013, the veterinary surgeon reported that she removed the "webbing" from between his two toes where the boil surfaced. The two toes are now joined. The underside of the paw also got inflamed, but the surgeon didn't deal with that. She said that if it returns, she'd ask that he comes back to remove the toe. We are hesitant to do that. 

  PET INSURANCE:  For those who do NOT have Pet insurance, it's worth buying the policy for $250-300/yr. through VPI Pet Insurance. I'm sure they'll cover some small part of this, but the Vet hospital told me that the bill would run between $1,600 and $3,000.

  COMING HOME: The vet hospital didn't do the surgery until after 2pm today, so Franklin couldn't come home tonight. They refused to release him, so he's staying overnight. We're supposed to pick him up tomorrow between 11am and 5pm- so we'll go at the end of the day.