If you have decided to welcome a dog into your home, you should be aware of one of the fundamental mistakes that we cannot afford as owners, and that is to humanize the dog…. The dog does not need to be held in our arms like a baby, it does not need coats in winter or perfumes to modify its body odor
Now, between one extreme and the other there is a midpoint, this means that without humanizing our pet, it is important that we worry that the structures that it already possesses to fully develop can function optimally.
For this we do not need supplements that distance our dog from his animal instinct, since we have multiple home remedies that will be of great help to us, this is the case of aloe vera for dog pads, a topic that we address in this AnimalWised article.
The dog's pads
The dog's pads are very resistant structures that are specifically designed to be in contact with the ground and that is why they comply important functions such as the following: they protect the dog from the pressure of its weight when walking, cushion the impact received by the joints and prevent blows, fractures and bone damage.
Although the pads are resistant, they can also crack and even have bleeding wounds, this will happen especially when we take our dog to take a walk through terrain that is not usual (rocky and abrasive) but it is also possible to observe these alterations in the face of weather conditions such as snow, heat, cold or ice.
Benefits of aloe vera for dog pads
Aloe vera is one of the best natural remedies to take into account in the treatment of canine dermatitis and obviously as it has properties beneficial for our pet's skin, it will also be very useful for treating alterations in the dog's pads.
Aloe vera will provide us with the following benefits:
- Regenerates skin cells and promotes renewal of the affected pad area
- It has an analgesic effect and anti-inflammatory action, therefore, it will relieve the discomfort that our dog feels when walking
- Due to its antiseptic action, it will prevent the pad wound from becoming infected
How to apply aloe vera to the pads
We must use 100% pure aloe vera gel of human quality, or failing that, extract the pulp from the stems of a plant, which we will apply directly on the affected area, let's see how next:
- Clean affected pad with sterile gauze and warm water
- Apply the aloe vera pulp
- Leave outdoors whenever possible, but wrap with gauze if your dog licks the pads as this will prevent them from healing properly
- Repeat this process 2 times a day
When to go to the vet
If there is a deep cut in the pad, bleeding that does not stop or a serious abrasion, we must urgently go to the veterinarian for a proper assessment, however,We should also be alert to other signs , they are the following:
- Dry Pads
- Permanent Cracks
- Lesions that do not improve
- Lesions that do not heal
- Nails that grow excessively
These signs can indicate the presence of leishmania and in this case it is important to go to the veterinarian to rule out this pathology.
