TL;DR: Most dog paw injuries are cuts on the pad, cracked pads, torn nails, or something lodged between the toes. Check the foot in good light, toe by toe. Shallow scrapes can be rinsed and kept clean at home. Deep cuts, bleeding that will not stop after five minutes of pressure, embedded objects, or limping that lasts more than 24 hours all need a vet.
Paws take a beating. Your dog walks barefoot over grit, glass, hot tarmac, thorns, frozen ground, and gritted pavements, and the pads are tough but not armour. The good news is that paw problems are one of the easiest things to catch early, because your dog will tell you.
What are the signs of a paw injury?
Watch for any of these:
- Limping, especially a limp that appears suddenly mid-walk.
- Licking or chewing one foot over and over.
- Holding the paw up or putting it down gingerly.
- Blood spots on the floor, in the crate, or on bedding.
- Refusing to walk on hard surfaces while happily crossing grass.
- Swelling between the toes or around a nail.
A dog that suddenly stops mid-run and lifts a foot has almost always picked something up. Stop and look before you carry on. If a limp appears with no obvious foot problem, our guide to why your dog is limping covers the other causes worth ruling out.
How do you check a dog's paws properly?
Do it somewhere bright, with your dog lying down or sitting, and go slowly. Rushing this is how you miss a thorn.
- Look at the whole pad. You are checking for cuts, flaps of loose pad, cracks, blisters, or a burnt, shiny, red surface.
- Spread each toe apart. Grass seeds, small stones, thorns, and matted hair with grit trapped in it all hide in the webbing. Feel for a lump if you cannot see one.
- Check every nail. Look for a nail split near the base, one that is bent at an odd angle, or bleeding at the quick.
- Check the dewclaw. It sits higher up the leg, catches on things easily, and is the one people forget.
- Smell it. A yeasty or sour smell suggests an infection or a long-running irritation rather than a fresh injury.
Doing this after every muddy or off-road walk takes about 30 seconds a dog and catches most problems before they turn into limping.
What can you treat at home?
Small scrapes and surface grazes. Rinse with clean lukewarm water or saline, pat dry, and keep the foot clean and dry. Skip the hydrogen peroxide, which damages healing tissue, and do not use human antiseptic creams unless your vet has told you to. Anything your dog can lick off is going straight into its mouth.
Cracked, dry pads. These are common in winter and on dogs walked mostly on hard surfaces. A dog-safe paw balm helps, and so does rinsing the feet after walking on gritted or salted pavement.
A shallow foreign body. If you can see a small thorn or stone sitting loose in the webbing and it comes out easily with your fingers, take it out and rinse the area. If it is embedded, leave it, because digging at it pushes it deeper.
When do you need a vet?
Call the same day for any of these:
- Bleeding that has not stopped after five minutes of firm, steady pressure with a clean cloth.
- A cut you could fit a fingertip into, or a flap of pad hanging loose.
- Anything embedded: glass, a thorn you cannot see the end of, or a grass seed that has already disappeared under the skin.
- A burnt pad, which looks red, shiny, or blistered and often peels. This comes from hot tarmac and is a burn, not a graze.
- A nail torn at the base, which is genuinely painful and usually needs sedation to trim back properly.
- Swelling, heat, discharge, or a bad smell, which all point to infection.
- Limping that is still there after 24 hours, or any limp with obvious pain.
Paw pads are slow healers because your dog stands on them every time it moves. A wound that keeps splitting open needs the exercise restriction as much as the dressing.
How do you prevent paw injuries?
- Do the seven-second test in summer. Press the back of your hand to the tarmac for seven seconds. If you cannot hold it, your dog should not walk on it. There is more on timing and surfaces in our guide to running with your dog in hot weather.
- Rinse after winter walks. Road salt and de-icer irritate pads and are worse if your dog licks them off.
- Keep the hair between the pads trimmed. Long tufts collect grit, ice balls, and burrs.
- Keep nails short. Overgrown nails change how the foot loads and make splits more likely.
- Build up distance gradually on new surfaces. Pads condition like anything else. A dog used to grass will shred its pads on a long gravel trail. Our hiking with your dog guide covers pacing longer days out.
- Check after every rough walk. Thirty seconds, four feet.
Watching for the limp you did not see
The awkward part of paw injuries is that dogs hide them well, and a subtle change in movement is easy to miss when you only see your dog in short bursts. A drop in daily activity is often the first real signal that something hurts, before any obvious limp shows up.
That is one of the things Rocket is useful for. It tracks your dog's daily activity and location, so a quiet day after a rough trail run stands out against the normal pattern rather than getting explained away. If activity drops and stays down, check the feet first. It is the cheapest place to look.
None of this replaces a vet's opinion. If you are unsure whether a wound is deep, or your dog is in pain, get it seen the same day.