Rock salt
 

Hi All, I live in the city in the Boston area and as you know, we have been slammed with winter weather - and I swear, every inch of the streets and sidewalks are COVERED in rock salt. After the storms, the weather has actually been not too bad, in or close to the 30's and quite sunny, in other words walking weather. I end up putting a sweater and then a coat on Beanie and she is quite comfortable to walk. BUT, the problem is, dodging all the rock salt. I do the best I can by picking her up when there are piles of it, and I wash her paws after every walk. But she still gets it all over her, so I comb her out and wipe her down with baby wipes.

I worry that she will sniff/ingest it because she is constantly sniffing the ground trying to find places to pee. Again, I keep her away from the rock salt areas that I can see, but the ground is so innundated with it that I can't tell if I am if the stuff is still there.

I think that it is so important to get her out to get some fresh air and sunshine every day, even if it is for only 15 minutes (barring snow storms). But, I am worried that she might be getting exposed too much to the rock salt. I don't want to just keep her inside all winter!

What do you guys who live in areas like mine (snow, ice, rock salt) do?? Do you take your doggies out or do you keep them inside?

:confused:Cripes, before I know it, I am going to be battling ticks and fleas - We can't win - rock salt in the winter and ticks and fleas in the warm weather!

Thanks!

dog boots. Dog Boots | Dog Shoes & Dog Booties the owner is a member here and very nice. My mom was telling me about her friend who a couple years ago had a dog who licked its paws after getting the salt on them and died. I would maybe try taking her for walks in stores shes aloud in just walk around the whole store or circle it and stuff it seems safer to me but if its just her paws I would try boots.

Oh God, that is what I SO worry about, her licking her paws!! I thought about the boots, but I don't know if I can get her to stay still long enough to get them on her! I saw some rubber ones, you get like 10 of them in a package, maybe I will try those. You just throw them out after you use them. But again, I have a hard enough time getting the harness and sweaters and coats on her, I don't know how to get the boots on. I give her a treat to get the other gear on her, I am thinking of how to use treats to get the boots on.

We are battling salt here too. My boys have to lick everything they find on the ground, so I have to seek out places that have not been salted.

I know what you mean, I hunt around for ANY place that isn't salted. I swear, there aren't any!! I took her to a place today that I thought would be o.k., but it totally wasn't, I ended up carrying her back to the car. I also had to stick her in the sink and wash her paws and legs because even though we didn't walk too long, she still was covered in salt.

I saw a woman walking a little dog with, what looked like, those disposable rubber, balloon looking boots on. The dog seemed to be walking fine with them. I just cannot see Beanie actually being o.k. with boots on her feet. I am going to see if I can find them at PetSmart so I can take them back if they don't work, as PetSmart takes everything back.

What about a park, or a green belt walking trail, maybe a nature preserve? Anyplace they would not salt. A pet store is a great idea like petco or petsmart :-)

There is an awesome park with all kinds of different closed in fields that I take her to and I can let her off leash. BUT, there is about 8 inches of snow right now (more to come tomorrow) in my area, and the fields are too deep for her to run around. I HAVE taken her there over the winter when the snow was less deep, like a couple of inches and the weather was in the 30's. Anything colder than that, it is too cold for her to run in the snow, no matter how small the amount is. Hence, trying to get her SOME sunshine and fresh air on the streets since the snow is too deep for her in the parks.

They salt outside of the pet stores here and it's not the pet safe stuff.

Do you have any doggy day cares that have play group events?

Oh ok that makes sense :-) makes me so thankful we don't get snow where I live now. I totally get where your coming from though as I lived in the mountains for around ten years and it snowed quite a bit there. I had a chow at the time though and she loved playing in the snow :-) never thought about the size issue when giving my answer or that there was currently snow. Are there any areas that the county clears that are not salted?

No. And you know, it seems that each year it gets worse and worse. I NEVER remember this much rock salt. It is like they just take a shovel and fling it out of the trucks. Not only that, they pre-treat the roads with other chemicals. And those chemicals along with the rock salt, literally eat up the road, with GIANT pot holes. Can you imagine what that stuff does to dog's feet? I have talked to people around here that have told me their dog's feet literally bleed and they don't know what to do. These are BIG dog owners and they don't have the option of having the dogs stay inside and pee and poop, the HAVE to take them out.

Like I said, I just don't remember it being this bad. Today, where I took her (I thought it would be better), there were literally about 2 inches of rock salt on the street, I couldn't believe it.

Aside from it being bad for dogs, we humans are tracking the stuff into our houses!!

I can only imagine, I remember when I lived where it snowed, the whole bottom of my car became corroded from the salt on the roads so I can only imagine what it would do to a poor dogs feet. Thankfully the mountains I lived in, I owned 20 acres of land so I had tons of room for my chow to run on at the time.

Wow, that sounds awesome!! 20 acres. That is like my whole street. ahahahaha

Well, I am going to have to try and get the boots on her or just do what I am doing, wash her feet EVERY day, which is a total pain and very time consuming. Especially since our walks during the week are on my lunch time as that is the warmest part of the day. I work about a mile from home and I take her into work in the a.m. and take her home for lunch, walk her, clean her up and then go back into work. I leave work around 10 of one and I have to be back at 2:00, so as you can imagine, it is quite the rush.

I am thinking that fighting her to get the boots on her feet is going to take up most of the lunch hour, so I just don't know if they will work!!

hello sportschick! i understand completely! between the snow, freezing weather and the salt, i havent been able to take my little guy out..I swear he is going a little bonkers. Yesterday i did take him to pet smart for doggi
e day camp and it seemed to help him cuz when we got home he was tired and not climbing the walls! I feel guilty for not taking him out daily but this winter has been brutal...I also use babywipes..

Hey, how are you? I know exactly what you mean! I find that if I take Beanie for rides in the car (in her "Beanie Bucket"), she is a little better. I did take her out today for a walk in my area, but I STILL had to stick her in the sink and wash her feet. I swear, I can taste the rock salt when I walk, can you imagine what these little dogs experience so close to the ground??