Paw pad injury on golf course grass

[Guest jmillard]

Hello,

 

We live in St. Maarten. 3 days ago we moved to an apartment on a golf course. I've taken Ebony out a couple times to play ball on the green of the 9th hole, but last night she started limping badly. Upon inspection, the middle pad on both her front paws peeled away with bleeding and discomfort. I rinsed the pads in water and then H2O2 and we are going to take it easy for a few days. It is very curious that this happened, as we play ball and frisbee every bit as vigorously at the beach and at our old house. The only difference is the grass. There is no sprinkler system to snag her paws on.

 

Has anyone here encountered anything similar? Is it just a matter of acclimating her feet to the fairway, or should we play elsewhere?

 

Thanks in advance for your input,

 

Ebony's Human

[Dixie_Girl]

First, welcome to the board! Second, I went to St. Maarten on our cruise and it was the BEST island! We really enjoyed it! Third, is it possible they sprayed something on the grass or had just recently used fertilizer? Hopefully some of the others can give better help. Good luck!

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Dry grass can be quite rough on pads. Probably you have tropical grasses there, which are coarser (not in width of blade, but the toughness of the blades) than cool season grasses. Sheep won't even eat mature tropicals such as bermuda, in fact. The friction of the grass basically gave her blisters. We see this in droughty weather on clay soil, too.

 

Keep her sidelined for a few days to let the paw heal. Then just acclimate her slowly and let her feet toughen up gradually to the new surface. Make sure, by the way, that her toenails are neatly trimmed - long nails can cause the pads to rip by stretching the foot out on impact.

 

Good luck and welcome to the BC Boards!