Hi everyone

Have any of you heard or seen this desease in other than terriers?

I have a chocolate lab bithc almost 10 months old. As you've probably read other places on this forum, Luna has cracked pads, and yesterday I got a mail from a lady, who had read my topic on a danish forum. She mentioned this desease, but I don't think Luna seems this bad, and can by a search on google only find it mentioned along with Irish Terriers.

Can you help me set my mind at ease.

Jeanette

Hi Jeanette

I've just had a quick look in my book, and Hyperkeratosis (Hard Pad), is one of the symptons of Distemper. There would also be other symptons too. Has she been vaccinated?

HTH

liberty :)

Hi Liberty

I've talked to a specialist, and he says that its rarely if never seen in labradors.

Yes she has been vaccinated when she was 7, 12 and 16 weeks old. What would the other symptoms be?

Luna has a nice shiny soft coat and doesn't seem sick or anything.

Jeanette

If it was Distemper you would a very poorly dog. Symptoms can include loss of appetite, discharge from nose or eyes, cough and diarrhoea. The hyperkeratosis is usually one of the later signs.
If tou walk her on rough sufaces such as gravel or on stoney ground, pebbly beaches etc, then it sounds more like her feet have become calloused. My mums' dog had something similar from racing around on stoney beaches.

HTH

liberty

Hi Liberty

She has perhaps been walking on the roads, but its first started in the beginning of december, so perhaps she is just extra sensitive in the winterperiod!

She mostly plays on grass, but in these days, the grass is completely frozen and very hard.

Well I would have been alarmed anyway, if she had lost her appetite, after all she is a labrador! And none of the other symptoms.

She doesn't really seemed bothered by it, so perhaps its just hysterical little me! She is after all my first dog :-)

Thanks again

Jeanette

Bellaluna,

I've only heard of hereditary hyperkeratosis disease affecting Irish terriers and only a few cases recently (it's quite rare). There is a photo on this link showing an example of an affected pad,  http://www.showringnews.com/hyper.html

Hope this helps, fingers crossed your girl is OK.

Joanne

Hi Joanne

Yes, the specialist I talked to, also told me not to worry. But that s typically me. I see something, and I start to worry.

Its just that Lunas pads are very dry around the edges, but nothing as bad as the picture on the link. So I keep my fingers crossed, and keep using paw wax every morning and evening!

Jeanette

Hi Jeanette, do you know if you use some chem. salt on the roads to keep it from freezing? where we live, our assocaition uses salt to thaw ice on the raod and every time we come home I have to wash my pups feet, even though I try to keep her in the snow rather than on the road, but she gets there from time to time. And I am sure in the winter even people's skin dries/flakes. It might be from snow, or dry air produced from the heater. I have bought three additional humidifiers to get some more moisture in the house. So far my skin is not flaking, but my pups feet do seem a bit dry and just like you said it does not look like anything on the picture of that link. What kind of wax you are using to soften the pads?
Alina D.

Hi Alina

Yes they do spray salt on the roads, but untill the other day Luna had not reacted. But I also try keeping her in the gravel or grass on the side of the roads/footpaths.

I have bought a paw wax for her feet, and I have also been suggested hoof-fat. It works, in the way, that its softens up the pads but it doesn't take the cracks. So now I'm trying to put paw wax on both morning and evening.

And yes, you are right. My skinn gets dry, so why shouldn't Lunas skin do the same!

Jeanette