Issues with Pavement

Possibly an odd question...

Rocky seems to have a hard time walking on pavement sometimes. Generally comes in a string of a few days/a week. In the winter I thought it was due to the cold and he wore booties pretty regularly. After 3-4 days of having issues with pavement (and being overall weaker/slower) I put on the balloon booties near the end of the walk and I am sure there was a difference. not night and day but he didn't seem to be...hesitating or slowing down a great down more on pavement. in fact he stuck to the pavement more VS searching out grass patches. Booties were only on back legs.

Ideas? Anyone else have a similar issue? what did you do? I've looked over his paws/pads. cut his nails. But no qwicks were cut either. His main issue is nerve damage causing lack of signal to the back legs (he does a lot of knuckling; walks with a weird gate).

My concern with using booties is he is already overheating, i'd worry that would contribute to that (yesterday's +24c was a disaster for us; i wasn't prepared and neither was he).

Oh and yes, clearly i try to walk on grassy areas for the most part but I also live in a subburb so there will be some pavement to get to grassy areas.

If he is knuckling. I would think dragging his toenails might give him an irritation feeling and he does not like it. The booties or grass would insulation that feeling and he could walk with more assurance.- Only a thought!!

Sending MOJO for your boy and you during these tough times.

yes and I have friends who have dogs who knuckle/drag their back feet to the point of bleeding and they have to wear booties. It may all tie together, he gets weaker (aka bad day) and draggier and then a day later has more trouble with pavement because his feet are sore. Then feels better, knuckles less, and is thus better on pavement. I mean if it's as easy as using boots I won't complain. Just trying to figure it all out. We had some issues in the winter like I said and I assume it was the pavement being so cold that would just sorta freeze his feet. But I may have been wrong in my assessment there.

I'll read up on boots that are safe for summer and monitor. I think I need to indicate weather in my "rocky daily log". I got pretty lazy and write one liners but that makes it hard to make any assessment.

Last week was a super good week. But it's a bummer when it's always followed by a bad week. trying hard to figure out a way to stabilize him (that won't end up costing $500/mt!)

I'm wondering if he's having joint pain...walking on the harder surface would cause the hesitancy and avoidance, grass wouldn't. My guys are like that when their legs are acting up (Sunnie's back, too).

I'm wondering if there's an issue with his nails, cracked?
When Ram has his nails clipped instead of dremeled I've noticed that they are brittle and will crack.

joint paints obviously a possibility. I may try another product that was recommended for joints for the heck of it. Curious if I should try the shots again (carthrophen). I wasn't sold on any impact before. I'd sorta like a pain killer (non nsaid) he could get on the days he needs (though i know pain requires constant management which we are doing but I feel he may need "more help" some weeks).

His nails are crap. They are brittle and splinter. i try to keep them short so they don't touch the ground. I suspect his feet probably don't feel great the more he knuckles.

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Originally Posted by Tanya

joint paints obviously a possibility. I may try another product that was recommended for joints for the heck of it. Curious if I should try the shots again (carthrophen). I wasn't sold on any impact before. I'd sorta like a pain killer (non nsaid) he could get on the days he needs (though i know pain requires constant management which we are doing but I feel he may need "more help" some weeks).

His nails are crap. They are brittle and splinter. i try to keep them short so they don't touch the ground. I suspect his feet probably don't feel great the more he knuckles.

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I was cutting these guys' nails at first and then switched to a coarse file. With both methods, we had splintered nails. I switched to a glass file...file in one direction, first with the coarse side and then with the finer side. Every morning. Smooth nails...no more splintering. Might be worth a try.

This is the one I use (also have one for my own footsies): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1