On vacation, it can always happen that foreign objects like sharp-edged shells are lying in swimming lakes or in the sea, either near the shore or underwater, and suddenly your dog is standing in front of you with bleeding cuts on its paws. Once your dog's paw is injured, good advice is expensive! We'll share our proven tips on paw protection and the optimal first aid for cuts on the paws – so that your vacation with your dog can continue despite an injured paw.
Home Remedy First Aid: What to Do When Your Dog's Paw is Injured
Once an injury is visible on the paw, it's time to act quickly. Usually, such wounds can be treated well at home. It's best to first examine your four-legged friend's paw to assess the extent of the injury. If your dog has indeed stepped on a foreign object that is still stuck, you can carefully remove it with tweezers. The most important thing now is to clean the paw injury: Clean the paw with some clear water and antiseptic and/or disinfectant solutions to reduce germs in the wound and thus the likelihood of inflammation.
To be on the safe side, you should have a vet examine the paw injury on site. Usually, the professionally correct advice then follows: "Make sure no water or dirt gets into the wound!" This is easier said than done when you want to spend two or three weeks on a beautiful beach with your dog – a normal paw bandage or dressing would get wet and dirty too quickly.
For this reason, we always have suitable paw protection shoes for our dog in our travel first aid kit: For minor injuries without a bandage, a paw protector like our TOFFLER is the ideal protection to ensure that NO dirt gets into the wound. The TOFFLER can be comfortably opened wide thanks to its zipper, so even young, wild dogs don't have to stand still for long. The motto: zipper closed, Velcro strap over it, and the shoe stays on wonderfully. Your darling can continue to walk without pain as before, as the sole is flexible and adapts to the movements of the dog's paw without constricting it. This way, your dog can continue to accompany you on vacation and doesn't have to wait sadly for you in the hotel room or caravan.
But beware: You should not let your injured dog run and romp with paw protection – an injured dog belongs on a leash until the injury has healed properly.
Is such a paw protector actually air-permeable so that the dog's injured paw can heal quickly?
For a wound to heal well and quickly, it should not be hermetically sealed. That's why our TOFFLER paw protector and the SKO bandage protection shoe are not completely airtight, so that your dog's paw can breathe.
Nevertheless, paw protection should only be used as a temporary measure: Let your dog wear paw protection or bandage protection shoes only for the duration of a walk, so that sufficient air can get to the injured paw again afterwards.
Also important: Make sure your dog doesn't start licking its paw without paw protection, as this can potentially introduce infections into the wound.
A dog slipper like our Fleece TOFFLER can help here: The particularly soft and airy shoe for indoor use effectively prevents paw licking. This way, your dog cannot lick open the wound it sustained on vacation again.
What to do if the dog's paw injury is worse than initially thought?
In this case, a visit to the vet is essential for your darling's health. For paw pain due to deep cuts, the vet will probably need to stitch or staple. To protect the treated wound, a thick paw bandage with interdigital padding is then applied. Here, the vet places cotton wool between all toes or claws to protect against eczema on the sweating dog paws.
This means for you after the visit to the vet: If you have to change the bandage, don't forget to put cotton wool between the toes again for the paw injury. This can support long-term wound healing for a paw injury caused by sharp foreign objects.
SABRO Tip: Buy viscose cotton wool from a drugstore if possible, as it remains soft and supple between the toes/claws even when wet, unlike cotton wool. This way, you are well equipped if your dog injures its paw.
The problem with a paw bandage from the vet is usually that the paw quickly doubles in size and thus no longer fits into a classic paw protector. But here too we can help: For these cases, we have our SKO bandage protection shoe, which has all the advantages of the TOFFLER paw protector, but is cut much higher and differs in shape for the front and hind legs. This way, even dog paws with a paw bandage fit in!
Our Conclusion: Always pack paw protection for your dog in your travel first aid kit
We don't travel without TOFFLER paw protection, and neither should you! If your dog then injures its paw on vacation, e.g. by a foreign object like a shell on the beach, you can simply apply paw protection after home remedy first aid to protect the wound from dirt and moisture during walks. This significantly reduces the risk of inflammation or infection. If possible, your travel first aid kit should also contain a Fleece TOFFLER as a supplement for time in the apartment, hotel room, or caravan and as a preventative measure against paw licking.
However, if home remedies do not help and pain and severe bleeding still occur, or if you cannot remove a foreign object yourself, a vet must be consulted – they will professionally stitch and staple your darling's paw before applying a bandage including cotton wool between the claws.
But even then, paw protection in the form of a bandage protection shoe is a good thing to relieve and protect your dog's paw. Because such paw protection gives your dog a good feeling when wearing it and gives you a great deal more security at the vacation spot – especially if you and your four-legged friend are traveling to areas where a well-stocked dog shop is not readily available.
Positive side effect: If a paw protector is in the suitcase, usually nothing happens on vacation. We call this the preventative effect!
Do you have experience with wounds and injuries at your vacation destination? What helped your dog? Tell us in the comments.
