Ranger has suffered from a merry-go-round of paw pad injuries for years now. We couldn’t never figure out how or why it was happening, but it was always the same thing: we’d notice him licking his paw a lot, we would look and see that the paw pad had been torn off. It is truly a horrible thing to see, I am sorry for sharing but I think it’s helpful for people to know. Below is a photo of his paw pad at its worst.
Truly disgusting and heartbreaking. And this KEEPS HAPPENING. Only Ranger has had this issue, not Grizzly. I’m wondering if brown paw pads are more delicate than black ones? Grizzly doesn’t lick as much, though.
After many vet visits and going through the same thing over and over we think we have figured out what it happening.
Ranger is a big licker. He licks his brother’s face, us, and himself. He especially licks his paws. So what we believe is happening is Ranger is licking his paw too much, which softens the paw pad, then he runs out in our concrete backyard, or the gravelly dog park, which causes the weakened paw pad to tear. At this point this is our best guess as to what it happening, and why so many times.
So our vet suggested putting him on puppy prozac to reduce his stress which would – theoretically – reduce his licking. Which would keep his paw pads strong and un-injured.
Well he’s been on it now for 7 months and here we are again, his paw torn. The licking seems to have picked up speed lately. So poor Ranger is spending a lot of time in his ComfyCone (which I highly recommend investing in right when you get a new dog, you’d be surprised how often you need it and those plastic Elizabethan things the vet gives you are horrible). I have one in just about every size at this point for them and my various-sized foster dogs.
As you can see he loves it:
He actually doesn’t seem to mind the cone, it does seem to calm him and he sleeps it in well.
Since the puppy prozac didn’t work, I have now decided to try something different.
Another potential reason for the licking is allergies. We’ve tried him on different foods over the years without any change (though we may need to try this again with a larger variety of options). So after seeing a hundred advertisements for nutritional chews that are supposedly miracle workers I decided to try them.
After doing some research it appeared that the Pawfy ones were the best, so I’ve purchased the Allergy & Immune chews to try. I’ll be giving him the chews for the next 30 days and I will post an update with how it’s going. These are the ones I bought:
I have no affiliation with this brand, it’s just what came up when I did some online research. I’m hoping it helps but not holding my breath – we shall see!
aussiedoodleadventures.com 