Star gets alot of hot spots, including on her paws and her licking just makes things worse. She cut her pad once too and licked alot. The vet sometimes givers her a cortizone shot for the hotspots and that seems to help. And it could be a sting - Sherman got stung on his paw pad a week ago and limped alot and licked his paw for several days. He's fine now.
I hope the vet can help you identify the problem. Poor Josie, it's not much fun to limp around!