Lily, Bean and their neighbor friend Sparky Arky, all dressed smashingly in their HarVest, on a recent snowy jaunt.If you've ever had the pleasure of floating on the densely salinated waters of the Dead Sea (or really any body of heavily salted water) with any kind of open cut you understand how excruciating painful that can be (trust me, even though it's been, gasp, 32 years since I last floated in the Dead Sea). Add extremely cold temperatures, bare paws, snowy conditions and being out and about AND being sensitive and you can begin to understand how, for some dogs (statistically for me, 2/3 of them), walking on salted roads can be a bit aggravating. Not to mention possibly toxic if the dog ingests the ice melting chemicals while licking paws clean and dry when back home.
For personal use I subscribe to spending a bit more for health and safety reasons. Safe Paw has a good set of facts that synthesizes options but really, you can use any search engine and gather up a set of data that best works for you.
My own recipe....avoid or if you have to deal with it, get through it quickly. You can brush off the salt but I usually just wince along with them as they walk 3 legged for a few minutes and then test the frozen waters, so to speak, and move on.
Stay warm, stay dry, avoid the ice, and have fun. But keep walking!
