Cut Pad

[BabyElephant]

We were out on our usual morning walk without friends, when one lady noticed that Scrappy, her 4 month old Cocker Spaniel puppy had blood on his leg. We checked him out and his little pad at the back of his front leg was cut and bleeding. She didn't know what to do so I took Poppy home and offered to go round to her house and help her.

I took some gauze dressing, antiseptic wipes and cohesive wrap. We tried to wash the pad and the blood out of his fur but he wouldn't let us. So we decided to just put on the dressing and bandage and leave him be. That was easier said than done but we got there in the end.

Anyway, I told her that if it was me I'd leave the bandage on and take it off in the morning and have a look BUT these things always happen at the weekend and she's just moved to thie area so they'll have to travel a long way to their vets and they don't know if they have an emergency service. So I told her to ring the vet and see what they say. Or if the blood comes through the bandage to take him to the vets straight away. The thing is she is going away this afternoon as well so he'll be left with his daddy all weekend. I said if he wanted me to go round and rewrap it again I'd do that for them.

I'm going to ring her later to see how he's doing (it didn't appear to be bothering him in the slighest) but have I done the right thing? I mean have I given her the right advice or should we have taken him straight to the vet this morning. She is quite upset that this has happened to him and was asking me all sorts of stuff like would it be OK for her to take him for another walk, what if this and what if that etc etc. It looked a lot worse than it really was because he has white fur on that bit of his leg and it looked like there was loads of blood when infact there was very little.

So what do you guys think, did we do the right thing or should we get him to the vets today while they are still open during nomal hours. What about the bandages, should we remove it and see how it is or leave it on for 24 hours???

[Blaze]

It sounds like you did the right thing!! I'd ring and see what the vet says too.
In my experience the paw pads do bleed a lot even with minor cuts. I've had it happen to Lilly before and I just kept her paw bandaged and made sure she didn't put too much pressure on it for a couple of days.
Obviously if it gets worse then I'd take him to the vets sooner but it should be fine. The bandage is good too because it will stop infection getting in. I'd just check it every now and then and re-bandage it if need be, if the bleeding has stopped completely tomorrow it would probably be ok to take it off and see how it goes.

[weezyNollie]

If it's a pad laceration, those are hard to get to repair on their own and usually need sutures to heal. You never described the actual cut, so I'm hoping it's minor. If it's not.. and it's a deep laceration, it'll need medical attnetion.

Otherwise, wrapping it and keeping it clean and dry is what you'll want to do.

[BabyElephant]

Thanks for your advice guys...

It's a small cut, it doesn't go that deep in to the pad so hopefully it will heal on it's own. I've just called the owners and spoke to his "daddy" and he said he seems fine, thanked me for my help and said that if it opened up again they were going to take him to the vets tomorrow.

I sure hope he's going to be OK for Monday, he loves Poppy to bits and will be well annoyed if he can't play with her for a few days. So will Poppy, he's one of the few dogs she's allowed to play with at the moment with her being in season!

[doggone walkies]

My Jake did a similar thing 2 years ago and I did what you did, but the following day I had to attend the Vet where it cost me £130 as Jake had to be anaesethized and have the dead skin/pad removed and sutures put in,, the fact that I waited overnight was the problem as the skin/pad had started to die, so I would go to the Vets now...

[GretaJack]

As I have posted here, Greta rips and cuts her pad frequently. I tend to them myself. The worst thing you can do it wrap it dirty. So make sure it gets cleaned thoroughly. I clean with alcohol (gret doesn't like that too much), and then I put on triple antibiotic ointment and then wrap with gauze and then vet wrap over the gauze and then duct tape, since gret will pull off the bandage. I only make her leave it wrapped for about 12 hours, then I clean it again and let it get some air, and they wrap again. I do that until it doesn't look raw/bloody any more and then I just leave it unwrapped unless we are going out for a walk, then it is wrapped again, for protection and cleanliness.