Hi, this is my first posting on this forum. My name is David, I'm 33 from Belfast and own a 7 year old GSD bitch called Sheba. Sheba began limping about 10 days ago and I noticed that she had a small 'split' on the large pad of her front paw. I examined it for glass or splinters but found nothing and just gave it a clean. She has had similar small splits on the pads of her paws before but they have all healed in a couple of days so I was not too worried. However, in this case this split does not seem to be healing even though I have been trying to keep her exercise to a minimum to avoid the cut re-opening. Unfortunately, I don't know if bringing her to the vet would help as she is very reluctant to let anyone but myself or the wife examine her paw up close. Being a GSD she is full of energy and I don't want to avoid bringing her out for walks but am afraid that if i do the wound will just keep re-opening and never heel - would anyone have any ideas which may help?