Too much running?

Laureli

We have had Nova for seven months and she is currently about 10 months old. We got her from a rescue and her breed or mix of breeds is unknown, but it has been frequently speculated that she may be part greyhound.

As a high energy dog, we walk her 30 minutes in the morning and an hour in the evening. A few days a week, we take her somewhere that she can run at full speed.

Tonight, she ran for about thirty minutes, followed by a thirty minute walk home. When I got her inside, I noticed that two of her paws were covered in blood. I put her in bath tub to rinse them off so that I could inspect them more closely only to find that several nails on three of her paws were worn down to the point that they were bleeding. We don't clip her nails because they seem to wear down on their own with frequent exercise.

Although I got the bleeding to stop, I've never seen this happen before and it leaves me wondering: Should we cut back on the time that she can run? Should we avoid running all together for the time being until the nails have grown back to a sufficient length? I'm worried about her having too much pent up energy if she can't get her normal fill.

Has anyone experienced this, and what did you do?

Thanks so much.

Kathyy

Sassy has uneven wear on the middle toes of her rear feet. She scrapes the tops of the toes and one toenail has started to get short enough to bleed. I figured out booties would help her out. So far so good. She seems to appreciate them and can move out better. Am also considering those stick on nail covers. For right now you could cover up the worn down foot with an old sock. I cut down the sides to make strips to tie around the leg. Messy but worked. Sassy is very tolerant of such things though. Using vet wrap to fasten the sock on would make a much nicer looking temporary bootie though.

Run her only on soft ground? Then put the booties on for the other walks.