Please help - old dog with pad injury

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Kelpie

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My friend has an elderly collie. His back legs are getting pretty bad nowadays but he still gets around ok and is generally happy.

However, a couple of weeks ago, he wounded his main pad on his front paw. The vets operated to take away some of the pad internally and then try to stitch it together. The first operation failed as it seemed that he reacted to the internal stitches + an infection got in. The vet then performed a second operation to take away more of the pad and try to re-stitch - this time only external stitches.

It's now a week from the 2nd op and the poor dog's pad is really in no better shape. The stitches have all now come away and there's pretty much gaping flesh where once about 1/4 of his pad was
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Up until now his paw has been bandaged (changing the bandages regularly) but now to top it off as well as the stitches coming away, the bandaging is clearly irritating other parts of his paw and in particular it is rubbing on his dew claw, causing this to become inflamed.

So, for tonight the bandage is now off to see where that gets us but I just don't know what to do for the best. The wound isn't really bleeding any more but it does look pretty fleshy/ raw. It also looks like some of the pad around the wound is dying off

I know that pads do take a long time to heal but this poor dog relies on his front feet to support most of his bodyweight nowadays and this is becoming quite a quality of life issue for him.

Any advice on what we can do with the pad to aid healing?
 
Manuka honey worked wonders on a wound that wouldn't heal on my bitches tail. I find socks make great bandages for pads. Use a dressing then put a sock on, take up over the pastern and secure by vet wrap or similar. The dog may try and remove it when unsupervised, to distract him try putting some vetwrap on other front leg as well, sounds daft but they often pay more attention to that than the injured one.
 
ooh, Manuka honey, I'd forgotten about that, thanx ever so much!

Good idea about putting some vet wrap on the other paw..... would you still put some sort of padding underneath that on that other paw?
 
Why vets insist on stiching pads I don't know, they nearly always fail and split open again, complete waste of time and money. I would personally re-bandage the foot. Make sure you separate the toes - put a wedge of cotton wool between each toe to prevent swelling - thick dressing on top then wrap completey in vetrap. Check daily for any changes - good or bad and re-bandage if necessary.
 
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