Bloody Paw After Walks

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bgalus

Forums Novice
Hi, I just adopted Harley, a sheltie from a an animal shelter in my area.

For the past couple of days, I've taken him for walks out on our street. Our little buddy loves to take walks and, for the most part, behaves pretty well.

However, after the last couple of walks, he comes inside with one bloody paw. It's the same one every time. Not sure what he would have stepped on, but I suspect that the cold pavement had something to do with it.

Just wondering how long he should stay away from walks until he heals up. I looked at the paw itself, but didn't see any cuts visible. It appeared as though one of the pads was pinkish - like it had been rubbed or scraped perhaps.

Thanks for the advice
 
Well, I am not sure exactly for how long you should keep him off the walks, but you can protect his pads with products such as Musher's Wax. It is great. You can use it in the winter to protect them from the harsh cold, salt and sand, and then in the summer to protect them from the hot surfaces.
 
How about boots for your dog? There's alot of construction around my house now and I stepped on a glass shard that embedded itself about half an inch into my shoe when we were out on our walks. I put shoes on Romeo just in case! Wouldn't want any of that glass in his pretty paws!

Put some balm on the paw in the meantime too, to soothe any scrapes.
 
I need to get some balm for Cali's dry pads.. I have boots for her but she refuses to walk after I put them on! She stands perfectly still with a look on her face like she just saw a ghost until I take them off when she runs from me! :lol:
 
I've used a product called Glycosomed on my pups pads (I also use it on my own hands). It's a very thick balm that absorbs quite quickly.

Do watch for salt or grit on the roads this time of year (I don't know if you leave in the hinterland or not). This will certainly irritate his feet.

Good luck!
 
Re: the boots - you could leave them on while you're both in the house! That's what I did. For a couple of days, he'd be in the house with the shoes on, eating, playing, etc, taking them off only for sleep. He got used to them quickly!
 
I may have to try something on Edan's pads since they are starting to get dry and calloused after 2 years of being a companion animal.

One question though, how do you prevent them from licking it off? Edan will lick lotion off my hands if I'm not careful.

Regarding boots - I just purchased a pair for Edan this year. The way I trained him was I put the front two on and just left them on his feet when he was laying down for about 5 minutes. If we went to lick or bite at them I'd tell him "Leave it" and Click-Treat for listening. After 5 minutes, I took them off, praised him and gave him a treat. Later in the day, I repeated the process but made him walk around a little. The next day I repeated the process with the rear legs and built up to all 4. He isn't really happy about them... until he gets out in the snow and starts running around; then he forgets about them.
 
For the lotion - after I apply it to the pups, I keep them distracted until most of it is absorbed. I do training or play (on the hard floors - so that it doesn't just rub off on the carpet or couch).
 
thanks everyone for the input. we took Harley to the vet this past weekend and it turns out that he had a little bit of a pad scrapped that was causing the bleeding after a significant length of travel on the road. Our vet actually said that Harley probably wasn't used to taking nice long walks on the road, so he suggested to "keep him going and wear him out"! He said his pads will eventually toughen up enough after several months of walking.
 
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