It’s funny how we tend to forget that animals are just as fragile as we are. I say this because all this winter I went through the motions of putting on my gloves, my coat, etc., just to go outside. The DMV had a crazy and cold winter;  I’m pretty sure I will have to replace my black leather gloves next year. As for the felines, they are agoraphobes, so outside paw maintenance really isn’t their concern. But when you have two types of dogs who have very different paw types, you learn to pay attention. Which is why paw maladies took us by surprise this month. First, Thor split a nail. It was very sudden, and due to his long hair the boyfriend and I didn’t catch it until much later than we should have. But it did explain his bad moods preceding the find. It all stemmed from this winter; while we were so concerned with salt and other harmful effects of winter on their paws and employing all the countermeasures we could, we forgot one simple thing.

While Thor gets groomed, etc., we hardly ever mess with his nails, simply because he was regularly walked on concrete sidewalks, which act like a nail file to keep his nails at a good length. Darla for the most part learned to groom her nails from Willow the cat (weird, but true). We never really thought about their paws because they maintain them– and yet the split nail discovery made me feel like a bad mommy. So we started paying more attention to the parts of the furry kids that normally are the domain of the vet : Ears & Paws

EARS: Shih tzuz and Great Danes have one thing in common- both  have sensitive ears. For Thor it is because of the constant hair growth that irritates the inside of his ears. This causes wax to build up quicker than usual. The result is a red itchy ear that puts out a certain odor (not bad, just…almost bad). For Darla, it stems from our decision to not clip her ears. My Dane’s ears are floppy and beautiful but more susceptible to ear infections. To combat this, we have a antibiotic ear cleaner that we use on them both at least once every two weeks. For the interim, we either just use rubbing alcohol diluted in water. Thor, however, has taken it upon himself to clean Darla’s ears every night, so we only just worry about his.

PAWS: Despite the fact that the dog park is a drive away, sometimes, especially in the heat of the DMV area, we just don’t want to expose the dogs to the car (despite that they LOVE car rides). There is a rec center close to our apartments that have some enclosed tennis courts and we usually walk down there and let them run around. Unfortunately, while Thor is as happy as can be, Darla’s paws did not like the texture– her paw split! She ended up with some blisters on her paw pads. I of course, freaked out. But after cleaning them and keeping her off of it for a couple of days, it healed over. What we have taken to doing now is rubbing aloe on her paws and her nose when it seems that they are getting dry or cracking.

Now that summer is in full swing, dry noses and paws are still an issue, as well as watching out for heat stroke and dehydration. Remember, DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER leaving your furry friend in the car, even if it is for just a minute, even if it is only 70*. This causes millions of deaths each year and we need to do our part in preventing it. If you begin to recognize symptoms of heatstroke, click here for some tips to help your dog and always remember to follow up with your vet.

As for the felines, they groom for at least a quarter of the day, and are very aware of their paws and ears. I can only imagine what they think of our ministrations to their canine counterparts…!!