Foot care can save your season
by Lisa Price
Covers magazine – Summer 2019
I tried again to persuade my friend Chuck: “All I need you to do is hook the suburban up to the trailer,” I said. “And if you could go to the store and get me some ice, I’ll be good to go.”
I had some dogs in training and was entered in an AKC event the next day – four hours away. But he was already shaking his head. “No,” he said. “You need to go to the doctor.”
During some dog training that morning, I had taken a misstep into a hole that was little more than a ground depression. Deep down I knew that wasn’t when I injured my foot; I’d been first favoring it and then limping for weeks. The misstep was just the last straw.
I went to the doctor. I had broken a small bone in my foot called the fifth metatarsal, a teeny little bone that kept me off my feet for eight weeks. It was a “re-learning” of a fact I already knew from a lifetime of running marathons and long-distance hiking – you can’t neglect your feet.
The same goes for our dogs. We know that injuries to the pad or interdigital area on a dog’s feet may need lengthy recovery time. As I “re-learned” with my foot, if an injury causes a change in gait or foot placement, the first action should be no action. You need rest and a trip to doctor. Stubbornly, I kept training, day after day, until the little bone said, “stop!” If we’re seeing a dog limp, we should use the same response: rest, plus a trip to the veterinarian.
So, let’s have a refresher course in dog foot anatomy and steps we can take to keep this area in tip-top shape.
Pads
Some years ago, I attended a nutrition seminar hosted by Purina, and met Bob West. I remember talking about grouse hunting – his favorite hunt with dogs – and he talked about the need to toughen the paws. He said that most dogs – and feel free to have a quick look at your dog’s footpads now – have pads no tougher than the soles of our own feet.
It’s not the dog’s fault.
“Most dogs spend a lot of time running in fields or in the grass of a lawn and just aren’t on the type of surface that will toughen the pads,” West said. “A couple days into a hunt, the dog can become very footsore.”
West told me that within his existing dog yard, he made a section filled with gravel. When I got back from that trip, I did the same thing, using landscape timbers to make a frame and filling that with gravel. I could see that my dogs were uncomfortable walking on it. In fact, they looked a lot like I do the first time I go barefoot in the spring. So, I put a woodpile on the other side of the gravel, along the dog yard fence, and bingo! Mice, chipmunks and the occasional rabbit put in appearances and kept the dogs running back and forth across the gravel.
If you don’t have the space to construct your own gravel pad, make it a point to find an area for dog walking that has gravel, stone or pavement. Remember the pavement test, especially in the summer – touch it with your flat palm to make sure it isn’t too hot for the dog’s pads.
What about hair between the pads, on the bottom of the feet, and also the hair between the toes on the top? Setters, spaniels and other long- or wire-haired breeds have a tendency towards the “snowball” effect where snow and ice buildup under the paw or between the toes. Regular trimming of the hair there can help lesson the problem, and there are various products designed to keep winter’s ice and snow from accumulating there.
Just ask Mark Stella, an RGS member from Princeton, West Virginia. It’s a rare day during grouse season that he’s not in the woods with his Ryman setter, Henry. If you’d like to buy Henry, you’ll need at least one million dollars.
“I’m by far no professional trainer or vet, but I always carry a first pack or tote for any emergency care that contains the basics of scissors, bandages, tape, wraps, and antiseptics,” Stella said. “Our surroundings here in West Virginia are quite demanding and steep to say the least, and many of our covers are old strip mine areas that contain slate, which can cut a dog’s pad really quickly.
“With the feathering in a setter’s legs and long hair between the toes, snow tends to form and stick, especially between their toes,” he added. “If not taken care of quickly, this snow and ice build-up will create gaulding between the toes and pads, which can ruin a hunt real quick and is very painful for the dogs.”
Stella said he keeps the hair trimmed on his dog’s feet. He added that some setter owners he knows – himself included – swear by a product called Mushers Secret, which is a wax paste.
“The most important thing is to check your dog thoroughly at the end of every hunt, or if you notice your dog acting differently,” Stella said. “Check their feet and pads for cuts, thorns, briers, and burrs. Treat their feet just like you own!”
Nails
If nails get too long, they can make the paw begin to splay. In other words, a nice compact foot can start to spread. At a minimum, it can reduce traction, but a more serious effect is that the feet can become deformed, which will injure the tendons because the long nails contact the ground when they shouldn’t, putting force on the foot and associated leg structures.
If you’re using clippers, cut at a 45-degree angle. Basically stick to the same angle that you can see in the nail and the quick (if you can see the quick). Clip often, because whenever the nails get long, the quick also lengthens.
I like to use a grinder on a dog’s nails. Three of my dogs literally yawn during nail care. The fourth – even if I just turn on my toothbrush – leaps from the room and squeezes under the bed. She’s so panicked by nail care that my veterinarian and I tried various sedatives, but nothing worked. I would take her to the vet to have her nails trimmed, and it would take me and two vet techs to get it done.
Then I got a different grinder, one not specifically meant for dog grooming – a dremel. It was much quieter than my original grinder, and I noticed that my “problem nails” dog was staying in the room while the other dogs were getting their nails ground. One afternoon I thought, “Well, I could just try it.” She didn’t like it, but she permitted it.
I switched to a grinder because it’s not as easy to make a mistake. The grinder sands the nail slowly and cauterizes it as you go. If you get close to the quick, the dog will react. No matter which method you choose – or if you choose to take the dog to a vet’s office or groomer – make it a point to keep up with regularly-scheduled visits. Once nails are too long it takes a while to get them back into shape.
Interdigital
Bob West makes the “tailgate check” a habit. In addition to checking for issues such as foreign objects in eyes or nose, obvious cuts or scrapes, he checks the feet thoroughly on the top and bottom.
Often your first clue that your dog has a problem between the toes is that the dog will obsessively lick the area. Most likely, the problem is an interdigital furuncle. The bump is a painful nodular lesion, a pyogranulomatous inflammation, located in the interdigital areas of the foot. Dogs can get interdigital follicular cysts, but the furuncles are much more common.
According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, the furuncles are commonly caused by a deep bacterial infection. Many dog breeds, including the Labrador retriever, are predisposed to bacterial interdigital furunculosis because of the short bristly hairs located on the webbing between the toes, prominent interdigital webbing, or both. The short shafts of hairs are easily forced backward into the hair follicles as the dog moves. Hair is very inflammatory in the skin, and secondary bacterial infections are common.
Owners should check the dog’s feet regularly, because if the furuncle is not promptly treated, it can quickly develop into multiple nodules. If the lesion is caused by a foreign body, such as a grass awn, it will usually remain solitary, but if the problem was caused by bacteria, the paw can get multiple nodules.
Bacterial interdigital furuncles respond best to a combination of topical and systemic therapy. Because these are deep infections, they require long-term therapy. Chronic, recurrent interdigital furunculosis is most often caused by inappropriate antibiotic therapy, such as too short a course, the wrong dosage, or the wrong drug.
