Doggie Paw Bandage

Now here's something I never expected to need around the house, but the dog started limping and favoring his left front leg on a Sunday morning. There was no apparent blood or swelling and he didn't whimper at all when I poked and prodded his leg. He did, however jerk his paw out of my hand when I tried to inspect his foot. As it turns out, he has two torn toe pads. Not sure how he did it, but it wasn't crusty or anything so I rinsed it out with some peroxide and water, then let it dry.

Meanwhile, I did a quick search on how to make a dog bootie. Most of them are geared toward folks with little doggies that live in extreme cold weather. All I needed was something to hold the gauze on. (After cleaning, I dressed his paw using a triple antibactirial ointment, a 4x4 inch dressing sponge, and wrapped the whole thing with 1 inch self stick gauze to hold it on without pulling out his fur. If the cut was oozing, I would've also needed to use some sort of gauze pad under the dressing sponge.)

Since my dog is pretty big (he's just under 90 pounds) and has some pretty big feet, I actually had to dip into some socks I stashed away for my daughter to grow into. So in this case, the sock I used is a Hanes Girl's small. Any appropriately sized sock would do, but the idea is to use something breatheable (ie cotton) and padded. The other thing is that the sock should fit snugly around the bandage to keep it in place, and also be long enough to cover at least 1-2 inches past the end of the main paw pad (the one that would be sort of like your palm). Reason being, to secure the sock onto the dog's foot, you should secure it in the space right behind that big paw pad. Use your thumbs to gently stretch the sock around the paw and try not to disturb the gauze dressing as much as possible, much in the way a woman puts on pantyhose. (IE Don't try to pull/drag the sock over the whole foot and dressing.)

Now, you can secure the sock in a couple of ways. I happen to have double-sided velcro, which in my opinion, is the easiest to adjust for the dog. You could also use regular velcro or even thread/weave a ribbon through the neck of the sock and make a drawstring to tie it to the paw. In a pinch, you could even use tape. But back to the double sided velcro. If you've never heard of it before, google it. This stuff is cool. They use it for reuseable cable ties and attaching things like soccer goal nets. I used it to attach toys to the stroller. I measured a piece long enough to go around the dog's foot at the aforementioned spot (right behind his main paw pad) and added a couple of inches for adjustability. Then, I hand stiched about a 2 inch section to the sock with the hook (hard) side down. This allows the velcro to hold the sock in place snugly around the leg, rather than slip out. The softer loop side won't hold the sock if it gets pulled.

Please visit our Etsy store for all kinds of upcycled accessories and jewelry, created in Hawaii!