Cracked Paws

[Duckslayer89]

My black lab and I have been doing a lot of mountain biking and hiking lately. Today he was limping a little when we got home. I looked at his paws and one had a crack with a tiny bit of blood on it. I looked at the others and they all had cracks on the pads just below the nails and a few in the middle of the pads. Is this pretty common for any of you?

[Becky]

We use bag balm when our dogs paws get dry like that.

[RadSav]

Were you just running through the woods or were you high enough to be on ice/snow? 

I've used many different off the shelf "miracle cures" on pads including Bag Balm.  All seem to work fine, but nothing seemed to be above the rest.  Though I think Neosporin works just as well.  I like the spray stuff for our dogs.  Helps heal, but doesn't soften as badly as some of the others.  Key is to stop using it AS SOON and the paw/pad heals.  Otherwise you make the pad soft and he/she gets injured even easier.

If running or hunting the dogs in ice/snow...try getting some Musher's Wax.

[mburrows]

Ive used the mushers secret stuff for my dogs and its seemed to help quite a bit

[HighCountryHunter88]

Ive used the mushers secret stuff for my dogs and its seemed to help quite a bit

Mushers seceret works great, we carry it and is becoming extremely popular for helping heal pads as well as damage prevention. Also If your dogs feet arnt holding up I would consider soaking them in tuff foot for awhile.

[Duckslayer89]

Cool those are all good ideas. We've been running a lot of gravel roads but he try's to run in the grass on the side of the road but sometimes there is none. His paws usually hold up great but we've really been putting on the miles lately. I might try the mushers secret that sounds like what he needs. I was thinking about the little paw booties you can buy but I don't think he would like them

[jjaba]

I had the same issue with my pointer last season. At night I would put bag balm on her paws then loosely tape baby socks on them. it worked pretty well sometimes she would get the socks off. 

[cowboycraig]

Neosporin has always done wonders for my dogs, and takes away the ouchy.

If a dog will tolerate them Doggy Sneakers actually work. There are also 1 time disposable ones. Have used these while a paw was healing and are not to have in the kit.

[JJD]

Dog boots or paw covers.
Remember that a good amount of a dogs heat elimination is through it's paws.  Covering them in warm weather may cause your dog to overheat.

[Becky]

We use bag balm because the dogs like to lick at their paws and it's safe for them to ingest, but if they get huge cracked/ bleeding paws I don't think it would heal something like that... is neosporin safe for them to ingest??

[HighCountryHunter88]

you dont need bootys if the dogs feet are conditioned and treated using products people have mentioned here. hounds put A TON more miles on then most bird dogs and ive never seen booties being used. its just conditioning.

[bearpaw]

you dont need bootys if the dogs feet are conditioned and treated using products people have mentioned here. hounds put A TON more miles on then most bird dogs and ive never seen booties being used. its just conditioning.

  Exactly

We run the hounds on back roads to toughen their feet and muscles for a few weeks before season. The first couple runs always gets at least one dog's feet. Blu Kote or Tuf-Foot seems to help damaged pads heal quickly. If you want to keep feet tougher year around keep your dogs in a kennel on rock or concrete.

[Jonathan_S]

We use bag balm because the dogs like to lick at their paws and it's safe for them to ingest, but if they get huge cracked/ bleeding paws I don't think it would heal something like that... is neosporin safe for them to ingest??

One of my beagles had an infection on her belly.  I know she licked plenty of it off and it didn't hurt her any.

[wildweeds]

I use some stuff I got from a coon dog outfit named something like Tim's nightlight supply. It's called pad heal has a brush in the can,smells of turpentine and works incredibly well.