# Pad Injury



## luanne (May 27, 2004)

Hunter ripped a portion of the top layer of one of his toe pads off. I don't know when or how. It's not bleeding, just a little pink. What do I do for that? Neosporin? Wrap it up?

It does bother him to walk and now that the grass is frozen poor guy has had a hard time walking out to go pee.

Thanks,

Lu


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## Amaruq (Aug 29, 2001)

You can try to wrap it at least when he goes outside. I doubt he will leave it wrapped though. It should heal on it's own in 2-3 days. Rayne is a pro and running her pads off when we go to the 'fake lake'.


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## ozzymama (Jan 17, 2005)

This might sound stupid, but when Ozzy cut his pad we put a sock on his foot until we got to the vets. We wouldn't have had to take him to the vet if he would've quit walking and running around the house. We had to have him sedated.


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## luanne (May 27, 2004)

I was thinking about the sock thing for when we have to go outside. He's being pretty good about laying down and staying off from it. Hopefully he'll keep that up so it can heal!!

Lu


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## Amaruq (Aug 29, 2001)

You can put a sock on- it works to an extent. If it is wet outside you might want to put it in a bread bag too. This could make matters worse though if it is slippery.


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## Chicagocanine (Aug 7, 2008)

In my experience wrapping paws does not work too well, the dogs tend to pull it off right away, but you can try socks. If you have dog boots you can use those to protect a tender paw pad as well... In the past I've mostly just used Neosporin and tried to keep them from walking around too much.
I had a foster dog once (Shar-Pei) who I had found as a stray. All four paw pads had abrasions on them. I put socks on him for a while, with bandage tape wrapped around the socks to hold them on. He left them alone pretty much. I also cleaned the abrasions every day to prevent dirt from entering them. Poor thing, the vet said most likely they were from just walking on hard surfaces for a very long time. It took quite a while for those to heal. If the skin is not actually broken but just some layers are peeled off, it should not take as long to heal.


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## 3K9Mom (Jun 12, 2006)

For a superficial wound, I clean it, apply neosporin and put a sock on. I especially like ankle-height socks (like, tennis socks). They're narrower and stay on better. 

After I put the sock on, I use packing tape (that you would use for boxes) and wrap the sock ABOVE the pad, starting just below the wrist and working up. Snug, but not too tight. Don't wrap the pad because the wound needs to breathe. The tape does two things -- it helps keep the sock on, and it's crinkly, so if your pup is messing with it, you'll hear it and can either "eh-eh" him or redirect. 

After my dog goes outside (it's always wet here), I cut off the tape, remove the sock, dry the foot and put on a new sock. Yeah, I do that several times a day. A wet sock will impede healing and might make things worse (trapping bacteria), so if you can't change it immediately, don't bother with a sock at all.


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