Paw pad care

[.unknown.]

I have a 5yr old Pitbull mix who LOVES playing fetch, usually, to her own detriment. She runs as fast as she can, then skids to the ball, and in doing so, she rips, tears and abrades her paw pads. We take care to check her feet on a regular basis and try to throw the ball shorter distances.We've tried putting Muttluks on her, but the strap rubs her dewclaw against her paw and it gets super raw, anyway. The park near our house is mostly hard, compacted, dirt and we've moved to the grassier areas but she still damages her feet.

I noticed a picture of a dog doing a Frisbee competition and it looked like his Carpal pads were taped with that Self Adhesive gauze stuff, is this something I can do that will actually help? Are there techniques to train a dog to be LESS intense?

She gets daily walks, so the dog park isn't her only source of enjoyment, but she does love fetch a lot, so it'd be a shame if we couldn't do it anymore.

Any help is appreciated!

[hazelrunpack]

Dawg, she's a beauty!

We use a product called Tuf-Foot (put out by Monaseptic Co) to toughen the dog's pads. It makes them leathery, so they don't cut or abrade quite as easily.

[.unknown.]

Awesome! Thank you

[budgrrl]

i am not sure if its the same thing that happens to kiila's pads in the winter - they get very dry and cracked and rough. i pop vitamin e pills or use almond oil on them to keep them soft and moisturized so they dont crack on her.

[doggy lover]

the only adhesive wrap I can think of is a vet wrap that is available at TSC stores or CO-OP stores its used on horses, but that would tape up the dogs feet at an unusual angle to what they normally are so it might cause them to get sore feet too.

[Chaser]

Tuf-Foot is hard to find in Canada. Not sure where you're located, but if you have trouble finding it I have had success with Dr. Maggie's Paw Protector for the same problem.

[Gail P]

Many mushers swear by feeding a zinc supplement to toughen up the feet. You can either use zinc tablets (they seem to recommend zinc gluconate, not chelated zinc) or you can find a supplier for a powdered supplement such as Zin-Pro. There is a list of links to all kinds of equipment and supplies if you go to www.sleddogcentral.com, but one I know lists it on their site is AKKO Sports in Quebec. www.akkosports.com

To heal feet there are various different creams you can get, but most have similar ingredients to zinc diaper ointment - lanolin, beeswax etc. I haven't had to use it on my dogs but I keep a jar of cheap Wal-Mart diaper ointment in my truck for the dogs feet just in case.

If you want to bootie you can wrap the dew claws so they don't rub. I recall reading how to do it (again, on the SDC Talk forum, you could do a search for related subjects if you do go to that site). Seems to me they were recommending using a bit of sponge or something to pad under the dew claw (between the claw and the leg) and then vet wrap over it to hold it down tight so it doesn't rub or catch on anything. Many distance mushers routinely remove dewclaws though because they need to bootie a lot under certain conditions.

ETA: I just went searching the forum and came up with the old thread I was thinking of about wrapping the dew claws http://www.sleddogcentral.com/forum/...ping,dew,claws