Cracked paw pads

[ecrozier]

Hello everyone!
My rottie seems to be suffering at the moment with cracks in his paw pads more often than usual? He has one on a front paw at the moment, and has only quite recently healed one on his hind paw. He has had them occasionally before but not this regularly? He has been to the vet but they said it is nothing major that is wrong with him, and I bought a little boot (well quite a big boot!) to stop hiim being sore when we go for walks.
Could it be the very changeable weather do you think? Or just bad luck and the flinty ground we have around here?
E.x

 

[Ollie2creampuff]

Hi there Emma

Cracked pads in your dog's paws could be down to a number of things... Most commonly would be splitting associated with becoming wet often and being allowed to dry inbetween - like the sore cracks people get on the skin of their hands associated with frequent washing. This can be influenced by the ground surface upon which your dog is walking also.

Some dogs that I see seem to end up with cracks in their pads on a seasonal basis - so round about spring/summer time and then again autumn/winter time each year. My advice to them is bathe at home twice daily with cooled boiled water with teaspoonful of salt and make sure they are thoroughly dried afterwards. The idea of using a dog bootie is a good one, especially whilst out walking. An alternative would be a nappy or a poop bag over a sock - but this must be removed when the dog gets back from its walk - so as to avoid sweating of the feet.

Certain fungal and bacterial infections can also play a part in pads cracking - but from your initial message, sounds like this is not the case.

Much rarer conditions (and I mean incredibly rare, only having seen 2 cases in my career) involving your dog's immune system or liver dysfunction can manifest as problems with pads - but more often than not the cracks and lesions are at the junction between the pad and the skin of the toe OR at the nail bed...but again your vet will have ruled these out on examination.

I would avoid human creams for the cracks as they sometimes have a tendency to make the situation worse by slowing down the healing or even irritating the tissue beneath the crack.

Whatever the cause of the cracks I think we can all sympathise with your dog, for anyone who has had a paper cut - these can be very sore and dogs can appear very lame. And because the pads themselves are notoriously difficult to get to heal quickly, it takes some patience.

So if you take anything from this, my closing line to my clients is keep them clean, dry and protected and give them plenty of time to heal.

Hope your wee rottie is back to 100% soon

Regards
Ollie

 

[ecrozier]

Brilliant, thanks for all that advice!
Will start bathing them and using the boot. It is most probably the wet then dry conditions, the weather here just doesn't seem to be able to decide what it is doing at the moment!
Thanks
Emma