doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT dog foot problems after being in marshy area.

Some very knowledgeable people on this board have talked about various dog problems before so I figured I'd ask here. I've been taking my dog for long off-leash weekend walks in a large park/flood control area west of Houston. Usually, the area we walk has alot of muddy and flooded areas, but otherwise is pretty normal with the weeds cut to ground level, no apparent thorny ground plants, and the fire ants aren't very bad. After one of these walks, my dog will lick and chew on her feet for days afterward, she'll sometimes do it too the point where her feet bleed. I hate having to search out another place to take her (and don't know if it would be any better). Does anyone know what's causing the problem and better yet what I could do as a solution. In the past years, when I was living in Illinois, she never had this problem.
FWIW the dog in question is a 6 year old female golden retriever
Steve

Rockdoc

Sounds like soil contaminants ..... salt, alkali ... or worse. First I suggest you take a close up look at her feet to see if there are cracks in the pads ..... this can be caused by dry callouses and give the paw an opening to what ever it is in the soil. If cracks are apparent my treatment is any lanolin rich hand cream applied once or twice a day. After every walk I would wash her feet under a hose or in a bucket. If the ground is wet they may be using a weed killer or insecticide ...... but these days you never know what may be under the ground if it's land fill. My old Bouvi had cracks in his pads that were hard to heal and in winter road salt would really make him suffer ... the only solution was booties I got from Cabelas. These are also good as a temp measure while paws heal.

Al

Steve,

Get her to a vet. There may an irritant or she may have an allergy. A blood test will tell if she is allergic to something we don't have in Illinois. In any case, the vet can give you something for the paws to ease her suffering.

Pete

You might try a pad conditioner. I have used it before when we were traveling to areas with sharp shells/rocks in the water/land and it worked fairly well. (Won't stop oyster cuts if the dog gets on a oyster bed)

My friends and I use tuf-foot on our upland dogs. It helps protect them. http://www.tuffoot.com/index.htm

My best dog had something akin to athelete's foot. Licking only makes it worse. We get KetaChlor shampoo from the vet and I am currently spraying his feet with BitterApple from PetsMart when he starts licking them excessively.

Maybe connected and may not. The vet told me that when the dog is hurting somewhere else he will lick his feet to get a shot of endorphin - leading to a fungus. My dog's anal glands were stopped up.

Best,

Mike

Had a similar issue once. Step one, get one of those plastic kiddie wading pools, and after the walk have the dog wade around in 2 to four inches of water to thoroughly wash anything off the feet. This may be all you need to do. Or, after drying the feet put on some of that foot toughener, or simple benzoin compound will do the same thing.

We used to use stuff on horses and I noticed on Beretta's Bird Hunting Journal that they were putting it on the dogs feet. I can't remember the name of it but I remember it was green and came in a squeeze bottle. What I would try is- washing her feet good and then coating them with Corona or Bag Balm. You can get it at Tractor Supply. They are rich in Lanolin and if your dog's feet are dry and cracked this will heel them in a day or two. If it persists, I would take your dog to the vet as suggested. Good luck with the pup.

Another tip: I use that Corona or Bag Balm on my chapped hands in the winter. It softens them up overnight. The best thing I have ever used by far. Good luck.