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You are here: Home / Pet Health / Pawdicure – How to Care for Your Dog’s Paws

Pawdicure – How to Care for Your Dog’s Paws

April 3, 2013 by A Husky Life 4 Comments

With the arrival of spring we all want to shed winter coats and look our best for the warmer months ahead, which is why Rocco got to enjoy endure a paw make-over. His nails are trimmed regularly, but once in a while we do a full overhaul.

Care and maintenance of your dog’s paws should be part of their regular health and grooming routine. Paw pads and nails  play an important role in your dogs mobility and when properly taken care of are not only esthetically pleasing, but also provide the optimal support for their whole body.

To begin you will need:

Tools
Tools

And

Rocco Pawdicure
A willing participant

I begin with trimming the hair in between Rocco’s paw pads. This is especially important in the winter when snow and ice can get stuck to the hair and bruise or even seriously injure their paws. However, trimming interdigital hair is just as important during the rest of the year when dirt, debris or small rocks can get lodged in the hair and cause damage to their feet. Mud, foxtail, burrs, gum, torns can all get caught in the fur and cause scrapes and discomfort. Some dogs can develop mats, which can be extremely painful, if the area isn’t kept well maintained. Removing the hair will also give the dog better traction, preventing them from slipping and sliding on hardwood or tiles, which is extremely important for older dogs who may already suffer from joint problems.

To clip the hair, I use rounded ball-tipped scissors. The ball-tip ensures that I don’t accidentally hurt the dog when working in such a small area and the rounded blade allows me to maneuver in between the pads.

Tools 2
Scissors

Next, I trim the nails. This is something I do fairly often, usually I try to trim the nails as soon as I can hear them clicking on the floor. Keeping the nails short is extremely important for the overall well-being of the dog. Overgrown nails can break below the quick causing great pain. Long nails can injure the dog, another dog or a person. Because the dog walks on their toes (unlike a human who walks on the soles of their feet), long-term overgrowth can inhibit proper movement, can lead to pain and soreness in their joints and eventually can contribute to the development of arthritis.

I use for this a regular nail clipper.

Tools 3
Nail trimmers

After clipping the nail, I buff out the sharp edges. It’s not essential, but I notice that after every nail trim, I get a lot of scratches from the sharp edges. The sharp edges also snag on blankets and dog beds, and I can only guess that they feel unpleasant when the dog is scratching himself.

You can buy one of these at most pet stores.

Tools 4
Nail Buffer

I finish things off by massaging a diluted coat conditioner into his paw pads. Pads can often become dry and even cracked. Once a crack forms it can be very painful and difficult to heal, depending on the depth of the crack. To prevent this you want to use a moisturizer. However, it is important not to soften the pads too much as they need to stay tough enough to handle a variety of terrain.

A paw massage is a nice way to end a relatively unpleasant procedure.

Tools 5
Diluted conditioner

And finally here are the before and after pictures:

Before
Before

After

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Filed Under: Pet Health, Rocco Tagged With: dog grooming, dog health, paw health

Comments

  1. mollieandalfie says

    April 4, 2013 at 1:15 am

    Wish I could cut Mollies nails, I’m too scared, I have to take her to the vets. xx00xx

    Mollie and Alfie

    Reply
  2. Thibaud Vidal says

    April 4, 2013 at 3:51 am

    Hahahahahaha, I love the face of the “willing participant”.
    As ever, you give us many tips in a light-hearted manner.
    I like your literary style. It is thoroughly enjoyable and easy to read.

    Did you ever be tempted to write books ?

    Reply
  3. Deena O'Daniel says

    April 4, 2013 at 7:02 am

    Good Boy, Rocco! Your mani-pedi looks great and isn’t it nice to be pampered like that! Dakota the Corgi lets me cut her nails, no problem, which is so different from Monty and Rosie (Both RIP 2011)…I had to take them to the vet to get their nails trimmed – they struggled with me and acted like big babies. For the vet tech they were fine, they just hid their heads under my arm while I held them.

    Reply
  4. Misaki says

    April 7, 2013 at 11:16 am

    Mine need a trim, daddy is too scared to do mine so I have to go to the groomers

    Reply

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