Raw paw is a fairly common occurrence in dogs new to daycare. Your dog might not be used to spending hours racing around with his new best friends, and the pads of his feet aren't used to the new wear and tear. Normally, the pads of a dog's feet are black. Raw paw is what happens when the black gets scraped off, and the pink underneath peaks through. In some cases blisters can form. It's usually not serious, but can be painful.
For example, every spring when we finally break out our flip flops, our toes are sensitive from having spent the whole winter protected in boots. If you ran around with sandals on all day the first day you could, you would be in a lot of pain by the end of the day. Instead, if you wear them little by little, you build up the skin on your feet to withstand wearing them day after day. It is exactly the same for dogs that get raw paw. They just had too much exposure at once, and their feet weren't used to it.
Treating raw paw
Signs of raw paw are limping and licking the pads of the feet. If we notice that a daycare dog has raw paw, the dog will be taken out of daycare and given some quiet time up front where they can rest and greet our guests instead. Their feet are washed to make sure there is no debris, and if necessary we bandage the foot so they can’t lick at it. It’s important that the paw takes as long as needed to heal, even if this means keeping your pup out of daycare for a few days.
Once the paw is mostly healed, we slowly integrate them back into the group, allowing them plenty of time for their feet to adjust. Soon, the dog will be back to racing around with his friends, like nothing ever happened!
This post went up shortly after I started bringing Toeby to daycare. That weekend I saw evidence he was developing raw paw. I knew exactly what to do and by his next daycare day he was all better!
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