Help!!!!

[fawnmolson]

Kinda long I'm sorry! I have an almost 5 month old boxer puppy. We live in an apartment so he is indoors except when we go out to play or for exercise. This week it's finally turned nice outside and so we've been out more and rollerblading and running and all of that fun stuff that he loves to do....anyway the other day I notice the pads on his paws are peeling, not like flaking off peeling like big chunks where it almost looks like it got cut on something (but there is no way it could have been cut and its on all 4 paws, the back two are worse than the front) I'm thinking that maybe it's because his pads were still pretty soft and from being on the cement maybe they got irritated, but I don't know what to do with them. Another thing that is adding to it is he has separation anxiety so whenever I leave the house (my fiance is out at sea right now) he pees in his crate, so he is getting a bath pretty much once a day (this has been on going since he was 10 weeks old). I tried putting lotion on it and then vet wrap but surprise surprise he pulled it off. Has this happened to anyone else or does anyone have any suggestions for me...I don't know what to do

[StormKatz]

You may want to consult your vet, however in my experience there are several things that can make the paw pads, peel/crack, and going from soft carpet to cement/rocks is near the top of that list, add to that constant baths, & it's not suprizing his feet are dried out.

Lotion however wont help, as a matter of fact because of the alcohol/perfumes most lotions contain in many cases it can actually make it worse.

For my boys I use vasaline/or Aloe Vera. Many stores also sell a salve called Udder Cream that works well too.

I'm curious what others have to say on the subject, hope your babies feet get better soon though.

[Boxer_21]

One of my boys had problems with his pads being cut up / irritated as well. When I brought him to the vet they recommended to use Bag Balm on them which I did and it helped a lot! It's best to put it on them right before bed time so it'll really soak in while they're sleeping. You can try putting on some light socks (maybe baby socks) if he'll tolerate it just to ensure they don't lick it all off. Mine wouldn't tolerate having socks his feet.

As far as seperation anxiety, you can try to help him to get over this by showing him that you'll always come back. Start out with putting him the crate and then go into the other room for a couple of minutes. When you go back in to him, reward him and give him a treat. With time you can gradually increase the amount of time you leave him alone, but always be sure to reward and treat him when you come back in. This is how I trained both of my boys and they both responded very well to it.

One last thing I wanted to mention. I understand that you live in an apartment so getting exercise may be a bit more difficult for you, but at 5 months old your puppy shouldn't be doing much running (at least not on a leash). He's still very young so his skeleton and joints are still developing. This type of forced exercise may cause more harm than good. Doing a search on 'forced exercise' will bring up several threads where this has been discussed before.

[NevaDiva]

One thing that comes to mind is the possibility of snow/ice melt or rock salt burning his pads. That stuff is awful and sometimes unavoidable but can cause the pads to burn and crack. My rat terrier, Vega , had this problem a few times. We too lived in an apartment when we had her. The landlord would salt and sand the walkway's and stairs and driveway of our building. Not to mention the sidewalks all had it as well. We cought on and fortunately she was a small dog so we could carry her to unsalted areas to walk or pee. Now the weather is warming, hopefully it will go away and you can plan to avoid, if possible, these areas come snow season and see if it helps. Bag balm worked for Vega to heal the sore pads too. I found it at Walmart.