Carpal pad amputation

Alfy had to have one of his carpal pads amputated after badly damaging it 10 days ago. I was warned that it can be a difficult area to heal. On Friday he was put back on antibiotics & metacam. He's at the vets tomorrow & I think they are going to try leaving the site uncovered which I'm dreading in case he knocks it.
Has anyone dealt with this injury before & how did the recovery go?
Thanks in advance

I assume you mean the stop pad, at the back of the leg?

One of mine was forever skinning them by chasing after balls and slamming the brakes on as he got to the ball (I then changed my throwing style to prevent it ) and would try to keep licking at the sore pads as they gradually healed over

I would think protective padding to better in early recovery, to prevent the dog keep knocking it, never mind licking at it?

Many flyball dogs run with vet wrap bandaging over their stop pads, to prevent injuries and friction burns.

Same as Tass there, I NEVER throw a ball where there's likely to be stones sticking up, I only throw it so that it bounces now and she can catch it rather than give chase to it rolling along the floor at speed, OR into the longer grass where she's not going to do herself an injury.

Time after time after time I had them sliced up, one after the other, sometimes quite deep cuts straight across which I had to go to the vet for, but most of them I could deal with myself.

This sounds quite a horrific injury for them to have had to remove it altogether I always used to dress mine for walks if it was cut, and I'd always put a bit of padding on after a melonin (sp?) sticker with some sudocreme or something, and after a few days, IF it had stopped bleeding on our return (salt water on our return) I would then resort to an antisceptic drying out protection spray like purple spray to keep it in check, but would leave it uncovered here at home.

The worst one for me was a couple of weeks ago, instead of the carpal pad, she managed to take a big chunk out of her actual leg just above it, but on a hind leg, and that took aaaaages to heal up, but thankfully, with my tlc it didn't get infected and it's now clear, dry and healed but no fur on it. That was through her landing on a huge flint sticking up off the ground after the ball bounced the wrong way back onto the track Sometimes I wonder if I ought to put that blooming ball away

Looks like you'll be in for some serious nursing care after this, your poor little Alfy. If you want to protect it from bangs, ask the vet it you can put some gamgee on top of a non stick dressing and a bit of vetwrap around, just to help him out on his walks, coz like you say, if he bangs it, he won't be doing himself any favours will he. You can take it all off when you get back can't you just like I've been doing? All the best with Alfy.

No advice, but hope all goes well xx

Thank you, yes I think vet wrap is a good idea. I always have a good stock of it in, just in case I need it - often do with my two. He sustained the injury running about in the woods. I have no idea what he actually cut it on but the vet said they'd never seen one split straight down the middle like that.

Thank you for your advice Helena54. We are at the vets in half an hour so I'm going to discuss it all with them. I'm glad to hear your dog has recovered so well
It was an awful injury, looked like a mushroom that had been cut in half,straight down the middle, one side only hanging on by a bit of skin. They had no option but to remove the lot, it was beyond repair.
He doesn't chase a ball when we are out but him & his brother chase each other around doing zoomies. They don't go round obstacles like bushes but through them Dogs eh!

Thank you for you well wishes Egyptgal

Hi
I hope your dog recovers well from this, I'm thinking of having this done on my lab, he's really cut it again in Sunday and it's so painful for him.
I've been making sure it's clean etc and only walking him in the lead no more ball - but I'm thinking it might be kinder to get it removed as its happened quite a few times now and I think it's weak. But would having it removed cause that area to keep opening up again?? Not sure what's best. I have got these really good leather pads with fur inside with Velcro might just use those although he hates wearing them ��