Carpal Pad Wraps during healing and then Carpal Pad mixes to toughen them

[LearningToBorderCollie]

Hey all, I love how supportive this forum is; I've seen some discussion carpal pad injury's here, here and here.

 

I wanted to ask if anyone has any advice on carpal pad toughening mixes (like Musher's Secret or Tuf-foot) or carpal pad wraps (Leather Stopper Wrap or Neoprene Stopper Protector?

 

Diesel had a sheltered life for 11 months and then has been with me for 4 months. He tore his carpal pads on frozen ground and it healed up. But he's torn them again and they keep almost healing fully, to get torn again.

 

I'm thinking of getting wraps to make sure they fully heal, then try and work on toughening them. Anyone else had something like this?

[urge to herd]

Yes, my first bc wore her pads to shreds. I think I played fetch with her on an asphalt surface. Very Stupid Human. 

My vet, after a couple visits, said to me, "If you don't let her pads heal fully, they won't." His advice was to limit her walking to outside to relieve herself and not much more. It took a while, can't remember how long, but we were very happy when she could walk without limping.

I did try some kind of wrap and it didn't speed healing time at all, and she hated the wrap. I would have had to use a cone over her head to keep her from licking at the wrap. Without the wrap she didn't bother her paws much at all. 

I did a fair amount of gentle grooming with her, and was able to teach her some silly tricks she could do while laying down. Visits to the yard were brief and on leash.

If I were you, I'd get those pads healed and in the meantime, get him used to the wraps, so that you can use them next winter. Or look into booties. 

Good luck!

Ruth & Gibbs

[Journey]

You might try the Tuff N Up from Farm Diggity.  

 

"Paw Protection / Grooming" https://farmdiggity.com/shop/dog-animal-supplies/health-grooming-beds/

[gcv-border]

Check into the protection used by Flyball competitors. Not only do they protect against injury, but some of them are really cool designs.

[Flora & Molly]

I have no experience with carpal pad injuries, but my dog tears one of her other paw pads once a year now (still can't figure out what happens... sigh)

Giving it time to heal fully is the only thing that works. I have made the mistake of thinking it had healed "enough" and going for longer walks and letting her off leash only to have them get worse again. The vet was useless and gave me some ointment that would speed up to process but it didn't really do anything - except maybe to soothe ignorant dog owners?

Those wraps look great, I tried boots for my dog but that made her chew her paws when she didn't have them on and I didn't want to leave them on all day and night for three weeks or more. I don't think I would mind keeping the wraps on if I had to, I think they might be easier to get used to for the dog than boots.

I'm curious if toughening products really work. I'm hesitant to try it, because in my country it's quite difficult to get and I don't think the stuff I have found will actually do anything - I don't think it is the same as the products linked here. So getting those products shipped here will be quite expensive and I don't want to do that if it doesn't help. I would love to hear if it helps your dog.