Alfie has hurt both of his front paws Last night we went to Blackpool. We walk the dogs in a secluded area near the sea where there is a lovely long footpath/cycleway which is always popular with dog walkers. The pavements are concreted and Alfie was zooming around chasing our son Jordan who was roller blading then darting back to us. When Alfie runs to us, he's like something out of a cartoon - he darts towards us ever so fast and then just skids to a halt - this is how he must have damaged his front paws. The main pad on each front paw has what I can only describe as 'peeled' - he has two little flaps of skin - one on each pad that looks like it needs trimming off - the skin underneath is dry - not bleeding at all but Alfie does keep licking and they are obviously causing him some discomfort as he holds the paws up intermittently when he's on his feet (Sorry, I would photograph them to show you but husband has the camera at work). When we got home last night, I bathed all of his paws in salt water and dried thoroughly but didn't notice the little skin flaps then. I'm just wondering what I should do - should I take Alfie to see the vet or just rest him and leave them to heal? Is there anything that I should put on them or bathe them in? I shall have to be very careful in future when walking him on hard surfaces and keep him calm which is a shame because he really does love bombing around.

I would just rest them but do keep an eye.  Amber got broken skin on her paws when we were doing a lot more road walking during the Foot and Mouth outbreak and, unfortunately, an infection got in.  We knew this as it was not healing up over two or three days as you would expect and just got more sore.  Vets treatment (I can't remember if it was a bacterial or fungal infection) sorted it no problem.

One of mine used to the skidding thing, ripping the stop pads.  We always took her to the vets - they gave fuciderm and they healed up really quickly.  The first time she did it was millenium eve - instead of celebrating we were tending to her poorly pads!!

Make sure there are no foreign bodies in the pads
give it a good wash and drythem/ put on some
New-Skin Liquid Bandage  you can get it at most
chemists,