Ouchie Paw

[Brian J. Sabel]

I've heard this is a recurring problem with boxers and wonder what, if anything, I can do to help it:

Scout occasionally gets sores on her pads where it looks like the skin has worn thin and cracked forming a rather deep flap of hard skin. I'm familiar with this danger in the winter and we have booties for her. But apparently merely walking on concrete or going to the dog park can do it, too. I have attached a pic.

I've started putting Vaseline on her pads to try and soften them up and we've had to stop the long walks for the time being. What can I do to prevent this? Should I resort to booties all year?

Thanks for the advice!

[bruinsBoxers]

Maybe get some bag balm and rub it on her feet daily . It should help to soften her feet and hopefully they won't crack . It would work much better then vasaline as it holds the moisture in and it is for dry cracked areas .

I have never heard this is a boxer problem .

[whitedaisy]

Actually, I think you want them to callous, that is what protects them, so you wouldn't want to put Vaseline on them.
This happened to my Duey when we played on concrete too long, I felt so bad for him!!!

[Brian J. Sabel]

I know of a couple boxers which have this trouble. They just don't seem to have it as frequently as Scout. They are older and maybe they realize they need to slow down when their paw gets banged up. Scout just goes and goes and goes and we discover it later.

[Ron]

Here in my neck of the woods (canada) Tie has trouble with is paws in the winter with so many people putting salt down on their sidewalks.

The rest of the year he's fine though

[AussieGirl]

Are they kind of blister like? Ruby got blister like sores - only on her white pads after going for a long walk on a concrete path that looking back now was probably too hot. Her pads did toughen up a bit. I just avoid walking on hot cement now.

[Brian J. Sabel]

AussieGirl, that's exactly what they are! They look like blisters that have been rubbed off and they are only on white parts. I'll get her healed up and be more careful on concrete and see if that helps.

[AussieGirl]

Yeah, I didn't apply anything to them, just kept it clean and let it dry up. I felt so bad, I just didn't realise how hot the path was as I was wearing shoes lol.

[Brian J. Sabel]

I felt pretty bad, too. We were on a walk and she started fighting the leash and showing aggression toward me. She got so unruly and I got so mad that I actually picked her up and carried her several blocks back home! I'm sure I looked ridiculous.

Knowing that her behavior might have been a symptom of an injury I looked her over and discovered the sores on her front paws. She knew I was mad at her and was very apologetic. I felt terrible because she didn't do anything unreasonable but was asking me for forgiveness. Sweet puppy!