OUCH!

Oh Diego, this doggie certainly keeps us working. This photo was taken on Wednesday, Aug 11. Diego's pads were badly burned from running on the asphalt. Yikes! We thought we were doing Diego's very long claws a service by having him fetch his tennis ball in our cul-de-sac and slowly filing his nails down. Clipping them takes a long period of time since the blood vessels come to about 1/4th of an inch from the end of the nail. (Very bloody if you just go to town with the clippers). So, we ran him outside for about 10 passes. It was a warm day, but not an over-the-top inferno by any means. He started taking breaks sooner than normal and then we noticed he was walking funny. Our first horrific thought was "Oh No! Not another broken bone!" Then we looked at the bottom of his feet and noticed the black pads were pealing off to reveal the pink pad underneath. YIKES! Double Yikes! Then we checked all of his feet and Quadruple YIKES! All four feet had at least one area that was peeling. We actually took a pair of scissors and had to cut the loose flesh off. He was not showing signs of feeling better by morning, so off to the vet he went. After a pain killer, burn cream and lovely blue bandages, he was back to crazy Diego. Luckily, he healed almost 100% in about 4 days. Fortunately for us, he is a very fast healer. He also was starting to pull his bandages off, one by one. Well, I can't blame him, I don't like wearing socks either.