Soaking an injured dog paw

[sophistikitten]

Hi,
I'm a newbie here but have been lurking around for a while!

My dog recently hurt his toe. We thought it was just a sprain but it started looking infected just today. I promptly took him to a vet this afternoon and, yes, there is an infection there. Despite the infection, my dog (Toshio) is in pretty good spirits. I will be giving Toshio antibiotics and a foot soak with a solution after each (short) walk outside.

I'm actually just looking for suggestions on how I should go about soaking his injured toe/paw. My significant other is out of town so I'm doing this solo. Toshio is a big boy (what we think, Carolina Dog/German Shepherd cross...though he could very well be a perfect mutt!) and his paw hurts. When I tried this afternoon, it didn't go so well. I managed to dip his paw in several times and got a lot of the solution on it, but I couldn't get him to sit there and enjoy a soothing foot soak!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

~Lin

[badger]

What if you took a washrag or some kind of rag and just saturate it with the solution and then cup it around his paw and hold it for as long as he'll let you. Don't rub or squeeze his paw, just hold it. You could have a few treats handy to distract him or make it a cuddle fest. Even ten or thirty seconds helps. Don't dry it off, just let it dry naturally.

[Chaser]

My pup has been having paw trouble and I've basically been using a cloth as suggested above....it's a bit messy so I do it in the kitchen, but Chase doesn't seem to mind it as long as he's getting pet

[sophistikitten]

Thank you! That's what I pretty much resorted to. I managed to soak it for a minute and then he had enough, so I've just been using a washcloth to put the solution on. I'm sure it'll help nonetheless!