Neither are toxic if the dog licks them, but both wear off in less than an hour. In a pinch, you can use petroleum jelly (i.e. This adds a barrier between her paws and the road salt. (If you want to know even more about Musher’s Wax, check out the details here).īefore each walk, I rub the tube on my dog’s feet, coating my dog’s paw pads with wax. I use Canadian-made Invisible Boot containing both soya bean oil and beeswax. Musher’s Secret ( affiliate link) is one popular brand – supposedly because dog sled mushers use it on their dogs. I’ve had the best luck with dog paw balm, specially formulated wax that comes in a wide tube like a glue stick (note: do NOT use an actual glue stick). Deep snow bank lost.īest Dog Paw Protection for Winter: Dog Paw Balm But considering how much she runs in circles and leaps through the snow like a fawn in spring, dog booties will be easily lost. At least one was being left behind during each adventure.įor this reason, I have not tried dog booties with my new dog yet. Success varied, but the biggest problem was keeping all the dog boots on. I tried several different dog booties on my previous dog. How to protect a dog’s feet from winter road salt?Ĭover or coat the paws – with something. Add to the fact the salt can be poisonous if ingested and winter isn’t such a wonderland after all. If your dog stops on winter walks, limps, or licks its paws, there’s an issue. Plus, it’s sharp and jagged and gets stuck in paws easily. Rock salt, sodium chloride, road salt -what ever it’s called – burns dog paws. Only thing is de-icing chemicals are not safe for dogs. However, the biggest threat winter threat to dog paws is salt – no amount of paw blood circulation will protect your dog from the burn of city street salt, spread all over to melt ice and make the road safer. Paw pads need to be tough and rough to the touch, but not painfully so. The cold also makes paw pads susceptible to drying and cracking. Symptoms include skin swelling, blisters or patches of blackened dead skin. Frostbite on any exposed part of the body occurs when the blood vessels in the skin constrict to preserve internal temperatures and block out cold. For instance, frost bite is possible if they are out long enough (which is one reason some regions are enacting a cold weather limit on dogs outside). However, dog paws can still get damaged in winter weather. Dog paws don’t get cold easily, so there’s no pressing reason to encase their feet while in the snow, at least not for short forays into nature’s frosty floor covering. That explains why dogs frolic in the snow with such enthusiasm – or at least mine does – and want to stay out much longer than we can bare – or at least I can bare. What does this mean?ĭog paws are very cold tolerant. Yet no other domesticated animal shares this trait. It’s a trait shared with Artic animals including seals, Artic foxes, and wolves. In canine paws, veins run parallel to arteries so warm blood from the body flows continually toward the paws. Dog paws can tolerate cold temperatures better than most animals thanks to a unique circulatory system that draws warmth into their feet, also known as a countercurrent heat exchange system. I learned recently my dog has unique feet – and so does yours.
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