Has anyone out there had any experiences of dogs with Hyperkeratosis (excess growth of keratin on foot pads).  It's appearance  is very hard pads with bad cracks and corn like appearance. I have a young dog with this problem, affecting all feet, but worse on back pads.  She has not been lame up to now, but they do look very sore sometimes. I am at present using intensive moisturiser on them, but this is only a temporary thing. Any help would be appreciated.

So sorry if this sounds silly - I have no knowledge of the condition - but I do get something similar on my heels, and in winter my heels crack painfully and become quite sore when I put weight on them. I just began using that new hard cracked skin foot cream from Scholl, and wonders, it works!

I presume you have seen vet as I believe this is one of the symptoms of distemper.

Hard pad is known to be a symptom of distemper, but cracked and corny feet (Hyperkeratosis) does not cause any of the other signs of distemper, the dog usually remains in good health apart fronm the feet, the pads of which become thickened and dry with a ridge along the edges which cracks and causes pain, the cracks can be very deep and can be accross the pad, once seen - never forgotten ;)

There are a number of dog breeds which can suffer from this and in these cases it is usually genetic.  Apparently it can jump quite a few generations and be traced back to certain ancestors ;)

One recommendation is to use zinc and castor oil cream (acts as a barrier and moisturises)  You could also try evening primrose oil in the diet, and generally feed as good a diet as you can.

I can also confirm that scholl cracked heel cream has done wonders for my cracked feet ;)  but don't know if it would work for a dog ;)

Please, please tell the breeder (if you haven't already ;) ) and whatever you do don't be tempted to breed your bitch and pass this painful condition on.

Yes, I understand that you can have hyperkeratosis without distemper and that it is known to be a feature in certain breeds but, as we don't know what breed the OP has, we should not assume it is simply this genetic feature and the dog should be seen by a vet initially if it has not been already.

Sorry to hear your girl has this. What breed do you have?

I know that the dead tissue can be removed surgically if very bad, otherwise keep the area lubricated.  I have to second what Dill said, please contact the breeder as they really need to know that it has shown up in their line.  I know in my breed (Irish Terriers) that breeders have tried very hard to eradicate the problem and that when a case arises the breed clubs are informed. Here's some info on the condition: http://www.showringnews.com/hyper.html .

Just did a search to see what breed you have and noticed that you have bred a litter - is this from the same girl with the Hyperkeratosis.  If so, I would get intouch with the pups owners to make sure that they never consider breeding from the pups.

To add to the above I certainly wouldn't breed from either the dog or the bitch again - both would be neutered!