Cut Paw Pad

[SAA1980]

Hi - our 1yr old border collie came home from a walk last night with a cut on her poor it was bleeding. We stopped the bleeding and cleaned the wound of any debris to find a straight slice on one of her paw pads. We covered the cut with gauze and tape and have let her rest. Initially she seemed to be hobbling a little but then started to walk normally. Will bath and clean daily and allow plenty of air. She's a young border collie with bounds of energy. Whilst she's on strict rest at the moment any ideas of how long this type of injury can take to heal a d how long we need to keep her rested for? Many thanks

They take a while. My lab sliced her pad, apart from keeping it clean and not allowing dog to lick(sock over paw). Lead walks for the foreseeable as you don't want her splitting it open again if she runs/changes direction quickly. Think my labs took about 10-14 days.

Thankyou

Sorry couple of questions lead walks is that whilst they recover? And did you see a vet or treat at home? Thanks

Mine did this when he was about 10 months - massive slice through the main pad. It needed stitches and he was on no walks at all for a week then short lead walks for another 2 weeks. It was bandaged and he a cone as he wouldn’t leave it alone. Was a bit of a nightmare to be honest!!

If it's deeper than just the cornified layer, it would be a kindness to get it stitched to hold it together while it heals. The stitches will have to stay in for a month though.

You can't keep it dressed for that length of time because they sweat between their toes and they would be more at risk of complications from the bandage than the original injury.

We had a complete fiasco at the vet where one of our dogs had to be seen every couple of days to have the cut dressed and manuka honey applied each time over a few weeks.

The honey was stopping infection but because it's wet the wound was never healing but the vet insisted the cut be dressed with honey and covered.

The poor dog was going crazy at being confined to being kept on a lead and he eventually got away and as he galloped around the dressing came off and by the time he came back the air had got to the wound and you could visibly see the healing!

After that we have never taken any to the vet for a small cut or tear and after a few days of keeping clean we glue it with superglue. Never had any problems.

We've had a few cut or skinned pads to deal with. First one we took the vet which turned into an expensive saga sedation, stitches, dressings on alternate days, a sore on his leg from the bandage etc.

The next one looked very similar. We let the dog lick out all the grit, then flushed it with saline, packed it with antiseptic cream, and dressed it properly every day. IIRC it was healed enough for no dressings and off-lead walks within 7-10 days.

I have a fair stash of dressings, saline, wound powder, wipes, antiseptic cream etc. We also now have a set of those little waterproof bootees, because of course they always knacker their paws in wet weather...

My vet didn't touch my dogs paw after he took a massive chunk/slice out of it. She said stitches or glue would just make it worse as the constant movement (even if at home) would just cause it to open up each time. Bandaging also wasn't recommended due to if it's not done right it could have caused more issues. I kept it clean, used pets at home anti bac powder in it & covered with a sock at home & boot when out (2 year old springer, going mad at home!! 😂) after a few days superglued it back together. He's done it several times since then & treated them all the same, all healed well. The worst part is the house arrest for the first few days