Dog With Apparent Paw Discomfort

[CharlesdeGaulle]

I'm hoping someone can shed some light on a curious episode with my dog's paws.

She's a 4 year old Cocker, and on 3 or 4 recent occasions, the latest being today, she has real discomfort on returning from a walk. The routes are different, so I don't think she's coming into contact with anything.

The symptoms appear to be really irritating/sore feet; she licks them and scratches them on the carpet. She calms down for a bit, then seems to get to the end of her tether with it and starts all over again. The whole episode lasts for an hour or so before it seems to go away.

The dog is otherwise active and healthy. One of my girls likens it to appearing to have chilblains - itchy sensitive feet, but there has been no consistency or commonality with weather or temperature the times it's happened.

I'm at a loss - any ideas please?

[AdiT]

Has the area you walk been gritted? I've heard of it irritating some dogs paws. It's also not good for them if they lick it.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

No, it's not grit. We walk in countryside and parks.

[TwistingMyMelon]

My collie does this when his paw pads get grazed on gravel, or when he get thorns in his paws, sometimes the paw pads grazes/rips are really subtle and need a good torch

[Kinderpup]

My little fella does this when we get in quite often, we've discovered that it's stinging nettles that irritate his paws, when we get in from a walk we wash his paws with the hose, if he keeps scratching at the carpet, we rub palmers cocoa hand cream into his pads, the trick is training them not to lick it off straight away.

[AdiT]

A friends whippet used to do the same in winter. Never really got to the bottom of the cause (suspected salt/grit but he wasn't really walked where there was any either) but she used Shaws paw wax on them and after a while the problem went away. She also tried rubber booties but he objected to them being put on.

[Shinobi]

One of ours has a similar thing sometimes, we found washing the paw or paws in diluted https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272478075544

Sorts it out instantly, this is the same stuff we bought always keep a bottle in the car now.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Shinobi said:

One of ours has a similar thing sometimes, we found washing the paw or paws in diluted https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272478075544

Sorts it out instantly, this is the same stuff we bought always keep a bottle in the car now.

That's really helpful, I'll give it a try. Many thanks.

[MYOB]

We experienced this with our Springer when he reached 4-5 years, and it transpired it was the onset of arthritis. The cold or wet aggravated it somewhat.