Strangest dog injury ever -- any suggestions?

[HamdenRice]

I took Teddie, my golden retriever, to the park this morning before work to give him some exercise. He loves to play fetch with his kong. So I was throwing and he was retrieving in a softball field. The field was covered with a very thin coat of icy snow, the result of a snow-sleet combination we had yesterday here in NY.

After a while, I noticed that blood was running down both of Teddie's front legs from around his dew claw. He apparently didn't feel anything, but I took him home. I thought maybe he had injured one leg and gotten blood on the other leg from one wound.

At first it looked like the dew claws were mangled, but after wiping away the blood, I realized the wounds were not that bad --more like scrapes or lacerations, right on the black "finger" part of the dew claw.

But the very weird part is that he had them on both sides. How had he badly scraped both dew claw paws? There was no glass or any sharp objects I could see on the field.

My only guess is that, like most retrievers, he has a tendency to overshoot the ball when retrieving and "skid" on his front paws. Maybe he was skidding his front legs on the ice, trying to stop after overshooting the ball. And because it was very cold this morning the ice was probably hard and sharp. That's the only guess I have.

Has anyone ever seen this kind of injury on a dog?

[CottonBear]

1. My friend's lab mix tore up his dew claws and cut up his legs like that

while sliding on rocky ground when retrieving his toys. They suspected glass or rocks as the cause of the cuts. The dog is very energetic and slides as he gets near the toy.

I hope Teddy will be OK. Maybe he needs skid boots like horses wear!

edit: sp.

[IndyOp]

2. My lab mix had problems with nails that split --

They didn't bleed, but on one occasion he had a limp, he wouldn't let me look, and I took him to the vet who had to give him a local anesthetic before he would let her touch the paw. The nail had split back into the nail bed - and you can imagine how painful was. She was able to remove part and he felt much, much better.

It doesn't sound like this fits Teddie, I just wanted to mention it in case it was the rough surface that was hurting his pads this morning. I wouldn't let him fetch under those conditions again because the two of you wouldn't want to have to deal with anything worse... :(

From what you describe, it sounds like he should be back to full speed by right about now - time for the evening walk!

:bounce:

[Tab]

3. My nutty Border Collie

scraped at least one paw raw jumping at invisible bubbles (don't ask) in our driveway. I live in northern New England and can easily see how a dog could damage their paw or claw.

Nothing weird to worry about, but if it happens, get it taken care of. It's not hard to damage them in an icy environment.

[Tab]

4. As a followup

I think our vet coated his paws with Silverdine (?) - some kind of cream - then wrapped them. We had to put the silverdine on for a few days. The dog is nutty enough to keep reinjuring himself without stopping to think it hurts him, so we had to try to keep him quiet (Border Collie owners will understand, others will probably shake their heads).

But yeah, ice can be rough, and you can give paw pads a nasty scrape.