The cold season also gives our dogs a hard time. Especially the paws are strained badly. Dry heating air, snow and road salt intensively stress the paws. As a result, they become brittle and cracked. This increases the risk that injuries will occur. They are painful and can even result in prolonged inflammation.
Special care is required
We can actively support our dogs here and avoid cracked paws and injuries. A very big help are paw balms, which you can also make yourself very easily. Since I always try to use natural products as much as possible, I also use only natural ingredients for my recipe, which you can put together very easily.
The base for my homemade paw balm is coconut oil. It has a moisturizing effect, is well tolerated and also antibacterial. In addition, I process in my recipe marigolds and chamomile flowers. Both also have an anti-inflammatory effect and promote healing. So a great combination to heal cracked paws and at the same time preventively protect the dog’s paws.
These are the exact ingredients for the homemade paw balm:
- 200 ml coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon dried marigold petals (you can get them in any case in the pharmacy or also in the health food store)
- 1 tablespoon chamomile flowers (also available in health food stores)
This is how easy you make the homemade paw balm:
First, heat the coconut oil in a water bath. You’ll see when it gets warm, it liquefies. You then add the flowers to the liquefied coconut oil and mix everything well until the flowers are evenly distributed in the coconut oil.
Then put the still liquid mixture into a resealable container. There you let the coconut oil cool down. It then becomes creamy solid again. This may well take a few hours. Then you close the jar.
Tip: Make sure you store the paw balm in a cool and dry place. When you use it, take a little out and you’ll see that just from your hand heat alone, it immediately softens enough to spread well on your dog’s paws.
How to apply the paw balm?
I regularly put a small amount on Tessa’s paws before a walk and massage it in lightly. Please do not apply too thickly, as the balm is very rich. Also after the walk, when I have dried and cleaned her paws, I put a little balm on the paw pads and massage it in lightly.
How do you protect your dog’s paws from getting cracked in the winter? Feel free to share your tips with me and other dog lovers in the comments!
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