Dog’s peeling paws worry owner
Q: Recently, I walked my 8-year-old female Dalmatian, Sadie, through an area I thought was brown, dead grass. After about 10 paces she suddenly stopped walking and looked at me in discomfort. I looked at the ground more closely and realized we were actually walking on dead thistle-like plants with hundreds of sharp, spiky balls. I picked her up right away and carried her out of there.
A few days later, all four of her paws started peeling and scaling, almost like a sunburn. I’ve since observed that no plants grow on this hillside, and I now suspect that I accidentally walked her through something like Roundup. She spent a lot of time licking and grooming her feet and I’m concerned about the long-term effects of whatever chemical she walked through. A: It’s difficult to say what Sadie was exposed to. Chemicals can cause irritation on contact. Products like Roundup are generally not life threatening if ingested in small quantities. The most likely signs you would see associated with ingestion would be gastrointestinal upset with vomiting or diarrhea. These signs would probably occur soon after ingestion.
If you are ever concerned about a product Sadie has been exposed to, the ASPCA has a great poison control website that you can access at www.aspca.org/pet-care/ poison-control. The site has information on many substances, plants, etc., and there is also a phone number you can call for more information.
The sloughing of her paw pads could be due to chemical irritation as you were concerned about. There are many other potential causes for these signs, however, including dermatologic and metabolic conditions. It is possible that it was a coincidence that you went for a hike a few days before the paw pad signs started.
Also, there are many things that can cause middle-aged to older large-breed dogs to “slow down” as you described. We commonly see largebreed dogs with some degree of arthritic changes appearing slower one to two days after a long hike or exercise.
As always, I recommend having Sadie evaluated by your regular veterinarian if she is not feeling better or if her signs return.