A puppy's paw pads - urgent question

P

PreciousSheltie

Forums Enthusiast
Hey everyone, Precious just got back from day care today, took her since the weathers been too hot for either one of us to stay out long enough to have enough fun and exercise, thought she'd enjoy it indoors in an a/c place with other doggies! I picked her up a bit earlier when I could though because I was called in the afternoon that they had noticed her paw pads were a bit raw so they had put her in a quiet area to rest her feet and take things slower.

Her hind legs are okay but her front two paws are really torn up:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/IcyTank/IMG_0261.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/IcyTank/IMG_0263.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/IcyTank/1-2.jpg

She doesn't seem bothered by it luckily and isnt limping around but im not sure what i should do with her paw pads. Should i leave the hanging pieces there or should I somehow try to remove them?? And should I try to use her indoor boots on her at daycare to see if that helps to prevent tearing or is it normal for their feets to wear and tear in order to regrow stronger to become harder pads through their growth to becoming adults??
 
Last edited:
Her feet will toughen up as she gets older, and then you'll miss those soft puppy toes. :smile2:

What kind of flooring do they have in the play area at day care? When Phebe was a puppy her favorite thing to do when playing was to run and slide. She wore raw spots on her pads a few times from sliding on carpet and the matted flooring at puppy class. She never limped and recovered just fine.
 
Phebe*DD said:
Her feet will toughen up as she gets older, and then you'll miss those soft puppy toes. :smile2:

What kind of flooring do they have in the play area at day care? When Phebe was a puppy her favorite thing to do when playing was to run and slide. She wore raw spots on her pads a few times from sliding on carpet and the matted flooring at puppy class. She never limped and recovered just fine.
Click to expand...

Thank you Phebe, though I'm not sure what flooring it is exactly, I can only describe it as black rubbery non-slip mat/tiles??? Nothing gritty or carpets or bristles though. Perhaps just sharp turns and runs (she loves running at full speed) is probably why, the abrupt turns on a nonslip mat. I'm glad to hear they'll heal well, she isn't limping either today either so I wouldn't have known if I didn't check/if they didn't check. Do you think I should take the excess skin thats peeled off partly, safely, incase Precious tries to chew it off??
 
not sure how to treat it but they almost look Cut to me rather then run raw & torn, I wonder if there are sharp edges to the flooring sticking up, that looks just plain nasty, Hope she get better quickly.
 
Hurtseverywhere said:
not sure how to treat it but they almost look Cut to me rather then run raw & torn, I wonder if there are sharp edges to the flooring sticking up, that looks just plain nasty, Hope she get better quickly.
Click to expand...

I'm not too sure, there were just flaps hanging.... When they called I thought it'd look more like a rash but yah when I saw them they were flaps. So I think she did those run and abrupt halts, causing the front parts of her paw pads all to push back, aka creating the flaps. Perhaps I will indeed try the indoor boots to give her extra protection running indoors.

She started limping after removing the loose skins. Hopefully she heals up fast :( I removed them because (as seen in photos, they were pieces flapping everywhere) and she always cleans her paws inside, I didn't want her to get one in her teeth and tear it out painfully, so I cleanly and neatly cut away the loose flaps. But... now I'm not sure that was a good idea because it seems more painful for her to walk around since her raw pads are more exposed to the ground... But eitherway, she'll be staying indoors today and healing her feet. Hopefully the next time she goes, the indoor boots I have for her help her keep her paws safe! Thanks for all your responses everyone
 
The same thing happened to my Motek when he was about 5 years old. Don't know why it happened. It was so close to being ripped off, that I decided to pull it off gently. I didn't hurt him and he went back to playing with his brother.
Admittedly it's very strange to see.
 
The same thing happened to Ginny last summer. I'm not sure if it was the surface she was running on, the side walk or a combination of the surface and heat. The best description I can come up with is that it looks like a dried up blister.

Ginny's paws were sore and I'd never seen anything like that before so I called the vet. They said there was nothing you could do about it except to keep her comfortable while they healed.

I bought some invisible boots that I thought might be soothing but they didn't seem to do anything. I eventually bought some disposable dog boots but she never wore them because her paws healed.

My advice would be to keep her off abrasive, hot surfaces like concrete or pavement until they heal on their own. You might also choose to remove the flaps with scissors or nail clippers. I kept the skin flaps trimmed short so that they didn't pull and cause Ginny more pain.
 
Here's the link to the thread I started about it. There are some good suggestions of products you can try if you want, but honestly, I'd just let them heal on their own and cover them if you need to. I worried about infection but in it wasn't like it was an open sore, so my worry was unnecessary.

http://sheltieforums.com/showthread.php?t=6475

Also, Ginny was just shy of a year old at the time it happened and it was her first summer with us. Her paws did toughen up and it never happened again.
 
OntarioSheltie said:
Here's the link to the thread I started about it. There are some good suggestions of products you can try if you want, but honestly, I'd just let them heal on their own and cover them if you need to. I worried about infection but in it wasn't like it was an open sore, so my worry was unnecessary.

http://sheltieforums.com/showthread.php?t=6475

Also, Ginny was just shy of a year old at the time it happened and it was her first summer with us. Her paws did toughen up and it never happened again.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the link and your story, definitely helps knowing that their paws WILL be okay and will eventually toughen up. I guess I didn't realize how hard and fast Precious is always running.. We'll definitely be staying indoors today (also had the worry about infection) but mostly because its really hot outside so the hot cement won't be any good for her paw wounds right now. Thank you
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top