Imagine walking around on your bare feet all day. Hitting the pavement on runs, feeling the grass between your toes and walking on dirt trails, your feet might not be looking their best after a few hours.
For our dogs, their paws endure a lot with active pooches’ running and jumping making their mark every time they go out.
Dog paw pads are critical to keep your dog healthy as these pads are made up of adipose aka fat tissue and elastic fibers while covered by pigmented, thick skin.
For dogs who walk on hard surfaces, paw pads can become calloused while other dogs retain their supple pads. Paw pads are critical for helping the dog orient to their environment as they tell them what kind of surface they are walking on and to regulate their body temperature.
3 Tips to Protect Your Dog’s Paws
To ensure your dogs’ paws are always at their best, here are a few helpful tips that should ensure your dog is walking around feeling its best.
1. Do a daily check of your dogs’ paws
The first step to keeping your dogs’ paws healthy is to do a daily check of how they’re looking.
This check should entail looking to see their paws clear of obstructions, checking for things like dirt, rocks, thorns and depending on where you live, bits of glass or other debris. You always want to make sure that you do a daily paw check since a number of breeds will have furry paws that will make it more difficult to see small cuts or abrasions.
In the winter, this becomes especially important as you will need to check to make sure their paws have not been exposed to de-icer.
2. Clean paws and moisturize
Checking your paws daily leads to the next step, cleaning your dogs’ paws regularly.
Cleaning your dogs’ paws can be a simple wipedown when coming in from the rain or a more thorough rinse and soak with a warm cloth after an especially muddy runaround.
Like humans getting their feet massaged, a gentle wash can be soothing for almost any dog and has the added benefit of giving puppies to adult dogs more exposure to humans interacting with their paws.
This is important as during baths or veterinarian examinations, most dogs will have some sort of reaction to getting their paws touched. Unless of course they have had a lot of exposure to humans touching their paws already.
Moisturizing dog paws may seem like a lot but it can pay off in the long run.
Dog paw pads can become cracked and lead to bleeding if they get too dry, meaning that dog-approved moisturizers can serve as an important deterrent to future injuries.
At the same time, make sure not to overdo it on moisturizer. Overly soft paw pads for dogs going out on pavement and other hard surfaces can lead to tears and rips. Just remember that preventative care is the best way to avoid future injuries.
3. Trim, trim, trim
When it comes to your dog’s nails, pawdicures should never be in short supply.
Long nails can lead to injuries on walks and while running around playing, with a good rule that most dog breeds should have nails that touch the ground when they are standing on a flat surface.
Though you need to trim the dog’s nails frequently, that frequency is really dependent on the dog breed. A recommendation that is almost universally true is to trim their nails at least once a month but again, consult your veterinarian on what is best for your specific dog given their age, breed and weight.
Trimming isn’t just for nails though. The fur growing between your dog’s paw pads need to be short so they have the ability to maintain traction on slippery surfaces (walking on fur while walking on ice isn’t a good idea), something to keep in mind especially as the dog gets older. The other thing with trimmed fur around the paws is that you’ll be able to monitor their paws better when looking for debris or other pawtential issues.
What to Do If Your Dog Has A Paw-related Issue
Now that you know how to ensure your dog can avoid paw issues, what should you do if something does happen?
From cuts to smelly paws, here are a few more tips to help you out in case you run into a paw-related health issue:
- Cuts and scrapes will happen, know how to manage them.
Despite having a pawtastic paw health routine, a cut or scrape to a dog’s paw will eventually happen, especially for active breeds like Siberian Huskies.
When it does happen, here are a few tips for treatment:- Clean the wound before wrapping or treating, ensuring any foreign object lodged in the pad is out. If this cut is serious or bleeding profusely, take your dog to the veterinarian. Using tweezers to pull out the object or washing the paws with water will usually get the offending object out.
- Apply pressure to the wound. Get a clean towel and hold pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding as you would for any cut or scrape you experience. If the bleeding has not stopped within 10-15 minutes, this is an emergency and your dog needs to be taken to the nearest veterinary emergency clinic.
- Ensure the wound can be sealed with a bandage and/or gauze pad. Bandages, gauze and wraps should be used to ensure the wound will properly close and your dog’s paw is supported while they try to walk around. The bandage should be tight and cover the paw from the toes up to the ankle ensuring that there will be no swelling while making it difficult for the dog to get out of them.
- Change the bandage daily. Keeping the bandage dry and ensuring it is changed daily to avoid picking up dirt and other objects while walking will help the healing process.
- Use an e-collar or inflatable cone to prevent licking. A number of dog breeds will try to lick their wound to “help it heal. Make sure your dog does not have licking access as this will only prolong the healing process and lead to weeks of healing as they continually lick off new skin and/or cause an infection from the bacteria on their tongue.
- Clean the wound before wrapping or treating, ensuring any foreign object lodged in the pad is out. If this cut is serious or bleeding profusely, take your dog to the veterinarian. Using tweezers to pull out the object or washing the paws with water will usually get the offending object out.
- Smelly paws aren’t necessarily good paws and should be treated.
Dog paw pads do have sweat glands to keep them cooler in the summer as well as to leave behind pheromones that yes, Shadow was here.
A bad smell here and there may not be an issue but there are smells that should be investigated.
When your dog’s paw pads smell like corn chips, this could indicate they have a bacterial infection from too much yeast or bacteria on their paws which could be caused by an allergy or too much exposure to something. Take them to the vet to get a proper diagnosis. - Crusty paw pads may be the sign of a medical issue.
If you are doing the preventative tips we outlined, you should avoid seeing rough-looking paw pads. But in some cases, overgrown paw fur and thick, crusty paw pads (or the dog’s nose) may be an indication of canine hyperkeratosis. A visit to your veterinarian is in order to ensure everything is all good with your dog’s health.
Your dog’s paws are just like your feet and hands, used daily for everything we do. Make sure to treat them right and you’ll be setting your dog up for lots of fun jumping, running, and walking all over their neighborhood.