Cut on Paw?

[Johnny_Namakan]

This weekend I went up to the shack to put out the cameras. The excursion was pretty uneventful until we got back to the truck. I noticed a little blood on the back seat where the dog was laying. She was acting normal and didn't appear to be in pain. I got out of the truck and went into the back seat and checked her over. i couldn't see blond anywhere and figured it was a bug bite that bled a little. So anyway, 1 1/2 hours later we get home and I let her out of the back seat and into the house. As she's walking through the kitchen she's leaving large amounts of blood in her tracks. I check her over and her front paw is covered in blood. Now I'm thinking she's been bleeding for the past 1.5 hours so I run out to the truck to to see if there is a pool of blood in the back seat. Nope nothing there, just the little drops that I spotted when we first packed up and left the woods. Anyway, I go back into the house and check her over. I have her sit and then I lay down to "look under the hood" so to speak. I wash off her paw thouroughly but still can't see a cut. Then I see the blood coming from between her pads. The cut isn't on the actual pads of her feet it's up inside, between the foot pad and the toe pads. I got some peroxide in there and got a better look and the cut and it looked pretty nasty. It's about 1/4"-1/2" long, but looked pretty deep. This all happened Saturday. I almost called the vet but I didn't. My plan was to first of all, try and get the bleeding to stop. If I could do that then I'd wait until today to bring her in, much cheaper than after hour emergency rates. I was able to stop the bleeding. I'm thinking that when she jumped out of the truck when we got home it must have opened the cut up. Since there was just a drop of blood in the truck it must not have been bleeding badly. So anyway, I put some triple antibotic ointment on it and wrapped it in gauze and kept it pretty tight to keep the cut closed. It hasn't bleed since Saturday and I've been changing the gauze twice a day along with putting more anitbotic ointment on it. My question is this: Is a cut on the foot like this something that would be stitched or would the vet do the same thing I am currently doing? If I call and ask the Vet I know what he'll say, "bring her in and let's take a look." Then $200 later I'm doing the same thing that I already am doing. I wouldn't think you could stitch this because just walking on it would probably rip the stitches open. Good luck trying to keep a dog off its feet too. I keep telling her that she has to lay down and stay off that foot, but for some reason she doesn't understand. She doesn't appear to be in pain, so doesn't limp or anything, and she still wants to run around and play fetch, which I won't allow her to do off course. My fear is infection, but with the gauze and ointment I should be able to keep that to a low risk. My hope is that with all the hunting dog owners on here that somebody will have first hand knowledge of treatment for this. Thanks in advance!

[Ole54868]

Sounds like you have it taken care of. I would just watch it but if you cleaned it up and have been keeping ointment on it you should not have anything to worry about.

I would save the $200.00 and just keep watching it.

Just my opinion.

[gonefishin11]

This happened to my pooch while hunting pheasants. We found a patch of grass in the middle of corn field... it turned out to be a junk pile. She cut basically the "webbing" between her toes on her front paw.

My vet did not stitch it; he just superglued it, put some antibiotics on there, wrapped it tight and I was out of there less than $50 later. She hunted the next day with the wrap on and had no issues. The bandage fell off a couple days later so I bought some antibiotics, ace bandage tape and some gauze and made my own wrapping for pheasant hunting the next weekend.

Hope this helps a little.

[Neighbor_guy]

....

My vet did not stitch it; he just superglued it....

This is what I would do. The dog may not like it because it stings like the dickens, but I have done this in the past and then rubed some anticeptic on it and been good to go.

[Johnny_Namakan]

Thanks, guys. I do have some of that Liquid Bandage at home, which is basically superglue with an anticeptic. I was thinking of using that, but like it was mentioned, it stings pretty good. I think I'll put some of that on tonight and wrap it up good again. Darn dogs, they have to learn to be more careful! Kind of makes me wonder WHEN she actually sliced her foot. It could have been right when we got into the woods for all I know. She probably ran on that darn thing for two hours before I noticed. High tolerance for pain I guess!