cut pad

[mfallon]

Any advice on how to best heal a cut pad? The cut in question is about a half inch long and reasonably deep – through the skin and in slightly into the flesh of the pad itself?

 

For now, I am planning to move forward with twice daily applications of hydrogen peroxide and triple antibiotic with scattered dips in saltwater. I will not use bandages or a sock / tape rig unless licking becomes excessive or the condition deteriorates (at which point a trip to the vet will invariably become the course of action).

 

Does all of this sound like a good path? It seems to be aggregate of what I’ve found online.

 

Any advice is appreciated – like most things, it seems like there are a lot of differing and likely valid approaches to dealing with this.

 

 

Thanks

[BustopherJones]

While your plan of action appears sound, the safest bet is to call your vet and get his/her concurrence (or alterante course of treatment, if appropriate).

[Alaska]

For now, I am planning to move forward with twice daily applications of hydrogen peroxide and triple antibiotic with scattered dips in saltwater. I will not use bandages or a sock / tape rig unless licking becomes excessive or the condition deteriorates (at which point a trip to the vet will invariably become the course of action).

 

Peroxide is bad for skin tissue. Don't use it for this. AK Dog Doc had a post on that a while back. Ah, here is a version.

 

You want to keep the cut clean, dry, uninfected, and protect it from abrasion so it can close up. It should take 10-14 days.

 

Clean daily with betadyne. Don't need to scrub and thus disturb the healing tissue. Just wipe in and all around the cut.

 

Topical antibiotic daily is good.

 

Keep the wound dry if you can (i.e. no gratuitous trips to the beach). Moisture is bad for healing. Leave the foot exposed to air as much as possible (i.e. in the house), but when the dog is running around outside a bootie is a good idea both to keep the wound from filling up with dirt/sand and to protect the tissue from abrasion as it heals. Focus more on brain exercise than physical exercise so you don't stress the wound as the tissue is knitting back together -- healing goes faster this way.

 

If you think the wound is deep enough to need stitches, or if there is any sign of infection or further problems, see your vet sooner rather than later. Pad cuts are common and will normally heal fine, but foot infections are nasty and can have permanent repercussions.

 

One more bit of advice: questions like this belong in the Health and Genetics section of the Boards. Makes it easier for the vets and vet techs among us (of which I am not one, just an acolyte) to spot them.

[MrSnappy]

Leave the foot exposed to air as much as possible (i.e. in the house), but when the dog is running around outside a bootie is a good idea both to keep the wound from filling up with dirt/sand and to protect the tissue from abrasion as it heals.

 

If you don't have a bootie, here is what has worked for us, since Red Dog slices his paw pads off at Hyperbowl every year.

 

gauze, then vet wrap, then an old sock, then more vet wrap and some duct tape, if need be.

 

I agree, hydrogen peroxide is bad. I hear Hibitane is back on the market, so I don't need to hoard mine anymore (yay!) and I always clean out wounds with this stuff.

 

RDM

[Aussie_Dog]

Peroxide is bad for skin tissue. Don't use it for this. AK Dog Doc had a post on that a while back. Ah, here is a version.

 

You want to keep the cut clean, dry, uninfected, and protect it from abrasion so it can close up. It should take 10-14 days.

 

Clean daily with betadyne. Don't need to scrub and thus disturb the healing tissue. Just wipe in and all around the cut.

 

Topical antibiotic daily is good.

 

Keep the wound dry if you can (i.e. no gratuitous trips to the beach). Moisture is bad for healing. Leave the foot exposed to air as much as possible (i.e. in the house), but when the dog is running around outside a bootie is a good idea both to keep the wound from filling up with dirt/sand and to protect the tissue from abrasion as it heals. Focus more on brain exercise than physical exercise so you don't stress the wound as the tissue is knitting back together -- healing goes faster this way.

 

If you think the wound is deep enough to need stitches, or if there is any sign of infection or further problems, see your vet sooner rather than later. Pad cuts are common and will normally heal fine, but foot infections are nasty and can have permanent repercussions.

 

One more bit of advice: questions like this belong in the Health and Genetics section of the Boards. Makes it easier for the vets and vet techs among us (of which I am not one, just an acolyte) to spot them.

 

I've got to agree with all this. Jake cut the pad on a front leg a couple of years ago (and it was a bad cut), and we made the mistake of wrapping it with gauze and bandages. Within a week, his foot was infected and we had to give him antibiotics and soak his foot in an ebsalm salt bath (to draw out the pus), and let the cut heal with air. The cut was worse than the usual cut, though, it was really deep, so you could move the two halves of the pad in different directions. Fortunately he healed well, and I have a hard time trying to find a scar.

 

This was his foot shortly after the initial injury (before it got infected)

 

But when we took him outside to pee, we wrapped his leg in a plastic bag to protect it, with a sock over that to give him some traction (he injured his foot in the wintertime)

[WyoBC]

Ok, I have two questions. Why is the hair between BC's toes red like they're bleeding? (that freaked me out the first three times I saw it, lol) and is there anything you can get for worn pads? I have noticed that Black Jack's get worn down with all his sliding around in the dirt. They don't get cut or bleed, they just get sore.

[mfallon]

Thanks to all for the great advice. Very helpful – especially in light of the fact I’d not know peroxide was counterproductive.

 

Next time on the health/genetic board….(thanks for the tip)

[juliepoudrier]

Baby socks are a perfect fit for most border collie feet. I keep them handy, along with booties (mainly because if the dog goes tearing off and loses a sock, it's no great monetary loss to me compared to a bootie). I try to restrict activity, and as long as the ground is hard and dry, I'll even let a dog with a cut pad go out unprotected, but only on leash so there's no tearing around....

 

J.

[Aussie_Dog]

Ok, I have two questions. Why is the hair between BC's toes red like they're bleeding? (that freaked me out the first three times I saw it, lol)

 

I don't know if you're talking to me or someone else, but Jake's toe hairs look red in the pic for any of several reasons. He could have just had a bone, and the red hairs actually came to be because of blood, lol, or, and this is most likely, he was licking his foot a lot to try to ease the pain in his pad (sometimes he would lick it just to get rid of the water from when we'd dunk his foot in an ebsalm salt bath), so the redness is from irritation from the constant licking. Looking closer at his foot, I see a spot that looks to be swelling, so infection is probably setting in in that pic.