Hello Friends,

Aliy Zirkle efficiently applies pink foot goop

Dog paws are pretty important for the K9 athlete as noted in the last post.  With thousands of steps a day during the race (my musher friend, Pat Moon recently said we take about 180,000 steps a day during the race!) and many miles, our mushers take special care of the pads on our paws.

Remember that booties protect our pads from getting clumped with snow, as well as preventing cuts from snow and ice. Along with the booties, our mushers use a special pink ointment to keep our paws healthy.

Iditarod volunteers make pink goop for dog paws.

Several Iditarod volunteers meet before the race to create a pink goop for our racing paws. The goop is made from Zinc Oxide, Thuja-oxide and mineral oil.  I don’t know what all that stuff is, but I know it feels like doggie heaven when it’s applied to my paws.  Just don’t eat it – bow wow – it tastes terrible.

At each checkpoint, my paws are carefully checked over by volunteer race Veterinarians. My musher has taken good care of my paws all along the trail so I know I will pass the paw inspection and be ready for another day of Iditarod racing.

                     Tail wags,

                     Zuma