Cracked pastern pad

[JohnLloydJones]

While we were wandering between Cynosport events, Senneca made a sudden lunge towards another dog and as she landed squealed and whimpered. It was obvious that she had hurt her right paw, but wasn't at all willing to let me examine it. This is unusual as she normally lets me touch her paws without protest. I have never heard her whimper before even when she had cut a paw pad.

 

Once she got up, she was walking OK. It was almost an hour later that I was finally able to get her to show me her paw and saw that there was a vertical crack down the centre of the pastern pad. Ouch. Once we were home I put some antibiotic lotion on it. It healed up quickly.

 

Now almost the same thing has happened with her left pastern pad. This time the crack is horizontal and there is a slight flap peeling away. Is there something that I do to prevent this happening? Would using a (human) cream or lotion be of any use?

[quicksilver]

Just a thought, it might be that adding a source of biotin to her diet will help.

[JohnLloydJones]

... it might be that adding a source of biotin to her diet will help.

Biotin is explicitly mentioned as an ingredient in her kibble. She gets cooked egg once or twice a week, too. I guess I could try adding grated carrot to her food -- I know she likes that.

[quicksilver]

The biotin in her kibble may not be easily absorbed. And cooked egg suggests egg yolk and white - the white cancels out the biotin in the yolk.

 

Try feeding her just RAW egg yolks, maybe one egg yolk every other day.

[JohnLloydJones]

And cooked egg suggests egg yolk and white - the white cancels out the biotin in the yolk.

 

I understood that cooking changed the factor that binds to biotin so that the biotin is available in cooked egg. Basically, I scramble eggs and share some with her.

 

Carrot is supposed to be high in biotin; that's why I thought I should try with that.

[haleigh]

Mmm, scarmbling the eggs doesn't bind the biotin. That is what happens when you feed egg whites and egg yolks together. Carrots are good for people, or herbivores/omnivores, but how could they help dogs when they can't digest them? The only reason why dogs digest kibble is because of the amount of processing the veggies went through.

 

As for lotions and such: Joy is a hardcore runner, so every time I bring her to the dog park, I rub some Burt's Bee's hand salve on her paws. IT does wonders to moisturize her paws. when they crack, I boil the skin of 4 potatoes in about 1 quart of water. I drain the water into a boil (no potato skins) and let it cool. When it's still lukewarm, I put Joy's paw in. It has great soothing effects. I keep it there about 10 minutes

[tualizzy]

We've had the same troubles with Jak's pads... easily torn while playing at high speeds.

I found a product at a local farm supply shop called "Pad Heal".

The bottle says: "Helps condition & strengthen, formula for flexibility.... will condition the webbing and pads so that they bcome flexible and less prone to injury." It comes in a bottle with a brush, and you apply it to the pads and webbing once a day to start, and then 2-3 times per week to maintain. It is made of: raw linseed oil, spirit of turpentine, pure mehaden oil, balsam of fir, bees wax and oil of vitriol.

It smells like tree pitch and can stain fabric, so we put it on outside, just prior to leaving for a hike/run. It seems to do the trick. We used it on Jak's feet for about a month, gave his paws a chance to toughen up without injury. Apparently the shop where we bought it from sells a fair amount of it to local ranchers for their working dogs.

Website for the company that produces it is: www.cut-heal.com

Maybe this would work for Senneca.

Good luck.

Cheers!