Update: We just got home from the vet. She (the vet) really had never seen anything like this before, but seemed to not be all that concerned. She listed off some possible causes which were similar to what we've discussed here and what I have seen on other forums. Here is the strange part... we walk in and the vet pulls gently on the "tufts" of hair which were coming from the inflamed area. The hair literally pulled out in clumps that looked like pulling feathers out of a bird. Sort of a central bulbous shaped follicle/root was at the bottom of each tuft. The fur was not attached firmly, this was just a gentle pull and the tufts were popping right out. She continued, and sure enough, all of the hair that was on the "growth" was completely removed. At this point we could see that the growth was actually rather small, I would say the size of two green peas sitting side-by-side.

The decision we made was to just clean up and bandage the area, which was bleeding at this point, and take a wait-and-see approach. The vet said it was plausible that this was a matter of ingrown or abnormal hair growth, possibly stemming from a small injury or infection.

BTW, the claw showing in the pic is not the dew claw. Dew claws were removed by the breeder... this is once of her normal toes that feels like it is no longer attached by bone. We assume that it was injured/stepped-on when she was very young and the injury went unnoticed. We call it her "lucky toe" like Nemo has a "lucky fin"

Side note: Emma will be 2 years old in July and she weighed 53 pounds when we saw the vet last fall. Today she weighs only 54 pounds, so very little weight gain. We figured that she was going to be small framed since her dad was only 85 lbs and mom was 65 lbs, but I did expect that she would have added some muscle over the past six-months. Vet said she's healthy and as long as she is eating that we shouldn't worry about it. I guess she's just always going to be our "little girl".

CL

 

I can just picture removing that hair ugh Makes sense it could be like an ingrown hair follicle, probably removing the hair did make it smaller,,did she try to 'pop' it?

Freaky me, I would still have said, take it off right now!!! LOL

 

No popping needed, at least at this point. Once the hair was pulled there would have been some oozing had there been anything "juicy" in it!

 

I am trying to get the mental image - was the hair they pulled out, covering the brownish thing between the toes, or was it just the hair from around it?

 

ok not to be gross here, but I think the 'thing' was surrounded in hair, which made it look worm like, so I believe she is talking about removing the hair that surrounded the 'thing', what was left was two little pea sized balls I guess you'd call them

 

It was the fur that was growing out of the area, not around it. Have a look at the attached pic.

 

Ok, the picture isn't really big enough to see my annotations. In the original pics in post #1, take a look at pic 3. What you're seeing is matted calcified type fur which is growing directly out of a raised, inflamed area/spot/growth (imagine a wart on a witch's face with hair growing out of it!). Now imagine pulling the hair on said wart, and having it pull right out in small tufts with a wet bulbous looking follicle. Sort of like plucking a feather out of a chicken. When all fur was removed it left a small open wound, which the doc bandaged up.

So now we are letting Emma outside to use the bathroom with a Cling Wrap around her paw. Looks hilarious

 

Wow interesting.
So is the brown lump gone now?

I wonder why it matted up? Did they say you should like, wipe between the toes or anything?

 

Brown lump is actually just flesh colored lump now that it's been cleaned up. Doc said to keep it clean for a couple days and keep an eye on it for infection, or for possible regrowth of fur and/or change of size in the remaining bump.

 

Thank you for the added info

 

Glad it seems to have all turned out, it was freaking me out a little bit lol

 

Just an update for everyone that it's been about six weeks and the growth has not returned. I'm really thinking it must have been some time of inflamed follicles there, maybe some foreign object got in there and cause irritation or infection... either way, it's gone!

 

Just an update for everyone that it's been about six weeks and the growth has not returned. I'm really thinking it must have been some time of inflamed follicles there, maybe some foreign object got in there and cause irritation or infection... either way, it's gone!

Well, thank goodness! I am a little late reading this thread, so I got to see the resolution right away. Good riddance. That thing was awful.