Well, Baillie has grazed her pad (front left) quite badly and there's a small cut near the front. So last night I did some doggy first aid with an antiseptic cleaner, a wound cream, some gauze and a bit of vet wrap.
Put one of those boots over her foot to keep her taking off the bandage (wasn't sure how long the boot would last!)
But it helped, as she didn't seem as bothered by it, and wasn't trying to get the boot off.

OH took her to the vets today (couldnt' get our normal one, I think he got a vet nurse, by the sounds of it - no offense to vet nurses!) but this one sounded a little condescending and horrible.

He'd taken her muzzle (she doesn't like her paws messed with, and is grumpy when she's hurt) - we muzzled her when I treated her paw! So it was 'why's she wearing that?' - um, so she doesn't bite you?

Then with the boot - why's she wearing that? Oh, don't cover it up - how are we supposed to keep her from licking it (and she did say to keep it dry) - then it was, oh, well, keep it on in the house then.

Oh, and she's FAT (she's lost weight since she went last time and we're still working on it) and he got a lecture. (personally I think she's hypo thyroid, but they won't do the test, and her weight tends to go up & down a bit)

I'm sorry, but what a cow. Not having had dogs before, my OH took all this quite pleasantly. I think I would have had to walk out, at the very least.

Grrr.....

Ok, sorry - rant over! Feel better for it!

I can't wait to take Louie for his free dental and watch the nurse recoil in horror when she asks what he's fed on

Paws are simple but hard. They can bleed for ages, no matter how serious or not serious the wound is. Louie has cut his paw twice (badly) since we brought him home as a pup.

I haven't took him to a vet though. All I do is like I would with a finger cut, keep the area higher than the heart as much as I can (I taught Louie a "roll over" for this and so I could clean his ears) clean it up with some antisceptic/salt water solution, dry it with kitchen roll and then place a steri strip over it best I can, then a dressing pad, then bandage it and place the blue stuff from wilko's around it to stop it getting wet.

Then leave it 24 hours, clean again, same thing again, and then from then on, change dressing twice a day. After a week I leave the dressing off to let the wound get some air but still clean it each time he's gone in the garden (we don't walk when he has foot injuries because he doesn't know calm walking).

Paws normally take 2 weeks to heal. But keeping it dry and clean is important. I would invest in some purple spray - fantastic stuff, never have gotten round to getting some but it is great.

__________________