paw pad injury and dog walker advice please

[noonar]

hi. i'd like some advice on 2 points

my dog got a nasty cut on a paw pad whilst out with his dog walker. we had to take him to the vet twice (with a total bill of £80).

6 days on, the wound is still gaping open although it looks clean and dry. we bandage it when we let him out in garden / take him down the road but he's not been on a proper walk since it happened.

i am concerned that the egdes of the wound should have healed back together by now and wondered if anyone has advice on this.

the second point concerns the dog walker. she is a pleasant girl with experience of dog training and the dog loves her to bits. but... although she texted me to tell me he was lame, she failed to notice this very obvious wound. (similarly a couple of months back, got another text to say he was lame, but she failed to notice a large thorn in this paw).

i do realise that this injury couldve happened at any time, but he definitely gets more 'roughed up' on walks with her due to over exuberance/ number of dogs in her care.

so.. i'd like some generally feedback on whether she has been a bit negligent re the paw.

also, what about liability for vets fees- would you expect a dog walker to be covered for accidents in their care? (need to check if we have an to date policy, but pretty sure our puppy policy didnt get renewed)

thanks for any advice.

I think you're being unfair to the dog walker really. Surely it's your responsibility to monitor the state of his health. Hope you did renew your insurance and he recovers quickly.

It would have been nice if she had noticed the paw injury but at least she noticed he was lame and told you.

I don't think she's been negligent in the dog getting the injury so no I don't think you should be looking for her to pay the vets bill. Maybe if she had done something really bad like let him run across a duel carriageway and he was hit by a car......but really your dog, your responsibility and you need to sort out insurance. I don't see how a dog walker can prevent a dog from cutting it's paw!

belinda, i can surely only monitor his health when i'm with him? if he's with her for the morning, and sustained an injury with her, surely she should take a closer look?

with the thorn incident, the dog was in pain for a few hours until i got home, if she had looked at his foot, she couldve saved him a lot of pain.

"I don't see how a dog walker can prevent a dog from cutting it's paw!" thats not what i meant!!

re negligence, i did say " i realise it couldve happened at any time" so she was not negligent in causing it to happen, in not to following it up.

btw, i'm not intending to ask her to pay anything, just wanted to find out in principle re liability as she does have more than her quota of dogs at times.

have re read my OP and other posts and want to say that i probably sound a bit a bit pompous

maybe instead of negligent i shouldve written "uncaring". he was is pain a few hours later both times, and she didnt investigate

that's it really. he was hurt she didnt take the time to investigate and am a bit as he is our beloved pet.

Why don't you change dog walker if you are unhappy? It'll be awkward for you both if there is a lack of trust.

To be honest I would have expected her to check his feet if he was limping, but at least she informed you quickly, and she is definitely not liable. Cut pads and thorns are just one of those things and not down to a lack of care or other exuberant dogs. In fact by walking your dogs with others she is effectively training your dog by socialising him, which in the long run is doing you a massive favour. I would think carefully before switching to having him walked by himself.

Pad injuries are slow to heal simply because of where they are, but provided the wound is not infected, and isn't opening up further it sounds ok. Sounds odd, but sniff the cut, does it smell bad? If so, take him to the vet. I take it the vet didn't stitch it originally, in which case it can't be that deep so shouldn't be a big worry. Just carry on with on lead exercise and covering his foot in the wet for a while longer.

She sounds a bit poor, lame dog equals foot check and a cut and thorn are easy to see.

thank you. good to get some different perspectives.
i havent made her feel in any way at fault/ responsible, so our relationship with her is still good.

in my heart of hearts i agree with havingabath. ie, it was a bit poor. but, as we are in a semi rural area, we dont have many alternative dog walkers around.

in a way that is why i posted. we are dependent on her two days a week and was worried that we would tolerate mild negligence on her part, as the alternative is us of being without a walker on days when we are both at work for a full day.

i wanted to check that our dependency on her is not cloudy our judgement, if that makes sense.

gonow, some good advice re the wound. will check it again.

Pad injuries take a long while to heal as the healed are has to get thickened like the pad - not uncommon for them to take 6 weeks before they are no longer tender to walk on.