# need help with torn pad



## Kyle Sprag (Jan 10, 2008)

need help or sugestions with a real messed up torn pad. What can I do to help?


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## Chris Michalek (Feb 13, 2008)

Kyle Sprag said:


> need help or sugestions with a real messed up torn pad. What can I do to help?



depending on how bad it is, super glue works well. Otherwise neosporin and a wrap


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## Jennifer Coulter (Sep 18, 2007)

HATE pad injuries. Tell you what not to do: stitches. They don't hold in a pad. Wish my vet had told me that before putting the dog under and having all the stiches come out the next day walking the dog from the car to a crate:evil: 

I have had good success with just keeping them clean and dry. Use no bandages if they are small, if large I use non stick telfa, cling guaze and vet wrap. Change often.

Healing is never as speedy as I would like. If your dog is good about bandages I have tried the honey in the wound thing, and by golly I think it works.

I have heard really great things about EMT gel (not spray), but have not used it myself.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

I've had a couple of those...make sure that the area is kept debris free, especially if there's still a flap of pad hanging on. I dunked his feet in warm water to remove the debris, put triple antibiotic ointment on it (generic Neosporin), and keep them off their feet except basic stuff for 7-10 days until it grows back over okay. E-collar if they need it.


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## Chris Michalek (Feb 13, 2008)

Jennifer Coulter said:


> Healing is never as speedy as I would like. If your dog is good about bandages I have tried the honey in the wound thing, and by golly I think it works.


I'm a huge advocate of using raw honey but I've been laugh at other places for suggesting it. Thanks for doing it first!!!\\/


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## Pascale Breton (Aug 22, 2008)

We have had great luck with superglue. Use the gel, its not so messy.


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## Mario Fernandez (Jun 21, 2008)

Our club field is dirt, we are constantly having to deal with pad injurys to raw pads, especialy blind searches. Unfornately it is the price we pay for having our field. Depending on where and the size of the tear, Super glue is good, but only a temporary fix. Keeping the wound clean, rest crate the dog and some kind of antibotics..never used hydrogen peroxide, it burns the skin... 

Always check and maintain your dogs pads...I havehad some pad tears on my dogs anywhere to minor tears to just plain raw pads. My buddy dad is a bird dog guy and he gave me tuffoot http://www.tuffoot.com/ Been using it for five years now and really helps my dogs I always keep some with me and every couple of weeks check the dogs pad and apply tuffoott to my dogs feet. I don't have too many issues with pad injurys anymore.(knock on wood) Best way to apply is to use the womans make up sponges and dab it on your dogs feet. tuffoot is also good for minor cuts and abrasions. A nice item to have in your first aid kit.

Best of luck and hope your dog has a speedy recovery. 

Mario


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## Julie Ward (Oct 1, 2007)

I race dogs and blown pads are just a way of life around here. 
I soak them in a warm epson salt bath a couple of times, followed by a coating of nuskin. I keep them on soft surfaces until the rawness and soreness goes away. When the ground warrants it I just tape their feet first in elastikon or elastoplast to prevent the pads from going bye-bye in the first place.


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## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

Julie Ward said:


> When the ground warrants it I just tape their feet first in elastikon or elastoplast to prevent the pads from going bye-bye in the first place.


Do you put anything over the tape after you wrap the foot? I need to start wrapping Havok's feet, he's herding in the morning, then doing FR training in the afternoon. Since he's still pretty new to herding, there is a fair amount of fast turning and circling going on. He's not tearing anything, but he's wearing the pads down, they are smooth once we are done and he's just a little bit foot sore. It's usually gone in 24-36 hours, but since we go out and do FR training about 8 hours after herding, he's still sore then and by the end of the session is really favoring his front feet. Was going to wrap him with vet wrap this weekend, but was concerned about it slipping around on his feet, this seems like a better idea.

Kyle, I would echo what others have said. Super glue if the tear isn't to bad, otherwise just keep it clean, keep the dog on a soft surface, and wait. Cali did a real number on her feet about 4 months ago, my instructor was hosting a herding trial with cattle and needed a couple dogs to dog break the steers. Cali did a good job, but all that in/out, ducking/weaving on the hot/hard dirt did a real number on her feet, she blew almost every pad she has on all 4 feet. Could barely walk for the next 3 days, even the grass hurt and once she laid down forget getting back up for anything except a bathroom break. But by the following weekend things had healed up enough she was able to trial on those same cattle. She was still a little foot sore, but not enough they kicked her out for being injured. I wouldn't have tried to do an FR routine with her, herding takes less then 10 minutes and should be more walking/trotting then anything else if it's going well, but after about 10-12 days she was back to normal. I'd have waited about 2 weeks though before really working her again, just to give the new pad material time to really toughen up.


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## ben peron (Aug 19, 2008)

use a standard human triple antibiotic


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## Michelle Reusser (Mar 29, 2008)

Perfect timing with this thread. I have asked her about a pad toughener because my dogs do this all of the time. Now with some age on them my adults are smart enough to keep it to a minimum, just worn pads but yesterday my baby girl was out with the adults and tore her feet up pretty good. All feet or raw and one front pad is ripped all the way along the back but still attatched. Most times I wash it , add neo and place a sock on the foot for a day or howeer long the dog will leave it. I'm not doing anything for this little brat. She isn't chewing it so I'll not wrap it and waste my time. I'll have to look a for that stuff Mario talked about.


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## Michelle Reusser (Mar 29, 2008)

Freakin' awesome, I went to the tuff foot site and looked at retailers in CA that have it in stock. Shows only 3 places in the whole state but one is Dobbs right here, and they finally got my damn Gappay balls on a rope in too. Bye guys, I'm off to pick these things up.


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## Mario Fernandez (Jun 21, 2008)

Michelle I was going to say the Dobbs sell Tuffoot. They are your in your backyard..LOL Phyliss was nice to send me a bottle several years back. The Dobbs also have something called blue foot, it works ok but it is a must to wear some type of gloves, it will stain your hands. 

Give Luc my regards.


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## Terrasita Cuffie (Jun 8, 2008)

Ran into this with one of my herding dogs. Bag Balm has become my wonder healer. For some reasons it promotes faster healing [sulfer?] than anything else. However, I had one dog that never tore a pad and then when he turned about 6, it became frequent. REad something that said tha tdogs develop a zinc type definiciency as they age so started adding 50 mg of chelated zinc to his food and wallah! no more torn pads. My buddy with her aussies uses nuskin and some of the tough pad stuff they sell in the local feed store.

Terrasita


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## Michelle Reusser (Mar 29, 2008)

Mario Fernandez said:


> Michelle I was going to say the Dobbs sell Tuffoot. They are your in your backyard..LOL Phyliss was nice to send me a bottle several years back. The Dobbs also have something called blue foot, it works ok but it is a must to wear some type of gloves, it will stain your hands.
> 
> Give Luc my regards.


They just recently moved the store up the road a bit. So if you ever try to stop in when you're up this way, they are now on Spring Valley Rd. I have seen that blue foot stuff and used something like it on my horses. It does stain and why I don't use it. 

I'll tell Luc hi for you tonight at training.


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## Lynn Cheffins (Jul 11, 2006)

Terrasita Cuffie said:


> Ran into this with one of my herding dogs. Bag Balm has become my wonder healer. For some reasons it promotes faster healing [sulfer?] than anything else. However, I had one dog that never tore a pad and then when he turned about 6, it became frequent. REad something that said tha tdogs develop a zinc type definiciency as they age so started adding 50 mg of chelated zinc to his food and wallah! no more torn pads. My buddy with her aussies uses nuskin and some of the tough pad stuff they sell in the local feed store.
> 
> Terrasita


Yeah if you have a dog that has chronic foot problems a ziinc supplement can make a real difference. I like this one http://www.howlingdogalaska.com/zincgluco.html as it is pretty economical if you have a kennel. Makes for tough toenails, too. I find generally what you put on the inside of the dog has more of an effect on foot toughness than what you apply on the outside. 
alot of foot toughness is genetic, also. Some dogs just don't have great feet and take alot more work to keep them in a good state.


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## Julie Ward (Oct 1, 2007)

> Do you put anything over the tape after you wrap the foot? I need to start wrapping Havok's feet, he's herding in the morning, then doing FR training in the afternoon. Since he's still pretty new to herding, there is a fair amount of fast turning and circling going on. He's not tearing anything, but he's wearing the pads down, they are smooth once we are done and he's just a little bit foot sore. It's usually gone in 24-36 hours, but since we go out and do FR training about 8 hours after herding, he's still sore then and by the end of the session is really favoring his front feet. Was going to wrap him with vet wrap this weekend, but was concerned about it slipping around on his feet, this seems like a better idea.


I almost hate to describe pad wrapping because if it's poorly done you can do some pretty bad damage. But here we go....

Most of the time when dogs wear their pads down it is actually just the large pad that receives the damage, not the toe pads. The large pad luckily is the easiest to wrap. You will need moleskin, the original thin kind, not the really thick cushioning kind and 1" Elastikon. You can get Elastikon online, it's hard to impossible to find in most pharmacies in my experience. So...you want to cut a piece of moleskin to fit over the heel pad. Make sure you cut it slightly larger than the pad itself, and just cram the edges of it up and around beyond the edges of the pad. Squeeze and mold it into place. Then take a strip of Elastikon and starting on the top of the foot, wrap it around underneath the foot covering the front part of the back pad, pushing the edges up past the edges of the pad up into the foot. Bring the Elastikon back around the top of the foot again and do another loop, this time covering well up over the back of the pad. You can do a third loop covering whatever part of the pad is still exposed if needed.

Elastikon is really sticky stuff, you do NOT need to wrap it tight to get it to stick like you do with vetwrap, since vetwrap only sticks to itself. Wrap it just somewhat snug, but NOT tight, then squeeze and mold it to the foot around the edges. Again, make sure you get great coverage around all the edges plus a little bit. If you only go to the edge of the pad it will start rolling back with wear.

Now the bummer of protecting pads efficiently....the stuff is a f*ing mess to get off. You need to soak it in vegetable or mineral oil and let it sit for a while to absorb before you can start working it off. Pad wrapping takes some practice and patience to learn to do really well protecting the pads with a long lasting results while also not binding the foot and cutting off circulation.


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## Laura Bollschweiler (Apr 25, 2008)

I almost hate to admit this but when I had a Terv with a chronic pad problem, if the pad was just worn and not actually sliced, I'd super glue a piece of black ladies pantyhose onto the pad. Worked for her. Plus she felt pretty.

I remember somebody telling me about this but don't have a clue who. 

Our first aid kits must be interesting to someone, with the makeup sponges and pantyhose... :-k 

Laura


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

There are some other threads with this. We had this a few months ago and it took a long time to heal [deep slice into the fat]

I used a lot of neosporin and when we went to work on the dirt I wrapped his foot in vetrap which he tolerated quite well. The vetrap did not last for long but it was better than nothing. I tried dog boots but I think the vetwrap did better as it helped hold it together.


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## Steven Lovitt (Sep 5, 2008)

Might be of interest: http://www.lotsofpets.com/3m-liqudbandage.html


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