There are so many different fads and fashions, that sometimes it’s difficult to know if people are just jumping on the bandwagon. When I first said that I wanted to create a Paw Balm for our range, my family just raised their eyebrows and looked at each other like I was mad. They are definitely popular at the moment, but are they really worth it? Besides just enjoying the process of massaging your doggies pads and seeing the look of pure joy, the benefits are many ...
As a treatment:
In many cases, the pain, suffering and frustration caused by paw injuries can be avoided by using dog paw balm. Not only can it help to heal and repair cracked and damaged paw pads, it can help to prevent a dog paw injury from happening by stopping them becoming dry and chapped.
Unlike humans who are able to manage heat by sweating from all over their bodies, dogs have limited ways of dealing with heat. They pant to get cool, but did you know they can also sweat a little through their paws?
A dog’s paw has 5 paw pads, each of which has a thick layer of fatty tissue under the skin. These pads act like shock absorbers, which ease the pressure on the dog’s joints. Whilst this is good for the joints, the paw pads bear the brunt of the impact. As puppies, paw pads are very soft, very pink, sometimes spotty, and very sensitive. As the dog grows up, ideally the skin should become tougher and harder, and much less sensitive. If the dog spends a large amount of time indoors then chances are the skin on the paw pads hasn’t had a chance to toughen up, leaving them more sensitive than the paws of pets that spend more time outdoors.
As a preventative:
Using paw balm as preventative care is always a good idea, and when it comes to extreme weather conditions, whether hot or cold, it can have a massive impact. In extremely cold weather, the paw pads can easily become dry and cracked. When your dog is jumping around in snow or on ice, there is not only the danger of that snow getting stuck in-between their toes (which could lead to frostbite amongst other things), but the presence of snow and ice generally means that potentially harmful de-icing chemicals have been spread around the area.
Anything from antifreeze to salt will not only aggravate the skin on your poor doggies paw pads, but it is quite likely that your dog will lick it off of his paws after the walk. The ingestion of such chemicals can obviously have devastating consequences. Paw balm creates a semi-permeable barrier which protects the skin on the pads from anything they come into contact with.
In the same way that the dog paw balm forms a protective layer to prevent damage from extreme cold and chemicals, it is excellent at providing insulation from extreme heat conditions. Although they can sweat through the skin on their paws, that will never be good enough to keep their paws cool enough when walking on blistering hot concrete, tarmac or sand. The paw balm will create that protective barrier, ensuring that your pooches paws stay moist and happy.
If you choose a dog paw balm made from all-natural organic ingredients, such as the our Paw Balm which is completely natural, when your dog (inevitably) licks at his paws and ingests it, the balm is completely non-toxic and therefore, harmless.
So, Paw Balm is most definitely fabulous and not just a fad!