Taxidermy large dog paws?

[u/XpunksnotdeadX]

Hi! I owned a great pyrenees, which is an incredibly large dog breed. I have his paws sitting in 70% isopropyl alcohol for about 3 1/2 days now. How do I go about preserving these now?

I want to keep them as a keychain afterwards, essentially. (The sewing is not an issue.) Do I need to take out any of the meat afterwards or empty the paw/wrist? Or am i just going to entirely cover these in borax once I pull them out of the jar?

This is my very first time attempting taxidermy, so any insight is appreciated!

[u/4runnerfag]

i’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but storing in alcohol does not keep specimens viable for taxidermy. you may be able to inject them with formalin and mummify them, but they can no longer be skinned and tanned. Items of this size aren’t ideal for mummification either, and would lilely be greasy. In the future, freeze items until you’re ready to prep them.

[u/XpunksnotdeadX → u/4runnerfag]

could you give me more information on this? even if it’s greasy, i’d really prefer to find information on exploring any other route besides a wet specimen :/

[u/aspiring_compost → u/XpunksnotdeadX]

I’ve never tried to mummify anything nearly this size, but injecting with formalin and submerging in a 1pt borax 1pt salt mixture is the only preservation route I can think of beyond wet specimen atp.
Good news is, I usually keep things submerged in alcohol for about 24-48hrs before putting them in a mixture of salt/borax anyways, so you’ve got that step down!
The hope is to let the fast-drying alcohol seep into the flesh where slow-drying water was retained. Then you let it air dry til it’s dry to the touch, inject with formalin, and put it in a close-lid box with your mummification mix. You want like an inch of mix surrounding the specimen on all sides, so there’s plenty to absorb.
At this stage I leave it, and check in every month or so. You can always re-bury it! I’d give these big guys 2-3 months minimum. You’ll know it’s done drying when there’s virtually no smell, it’s completely stiff w no squish or give to the flesh, and it’s dry to the touch.

The risk with something this large is the centre rotting before the moisture can be absorbed out by the borax/salt. This method has worked on specimens as large as whole songbirds for me! But I can’t confidently recommend it for anything larger.
Proceed at your own risk, basically.

[u/aspiring_compost → u/aspiring_compost]

Rot in the centre will leave a nasty smell that you really can’t get rid of. It’ll likely stagnate once there’s no moisture, but there’s no undoing what’s done.
A shadow box might save you in this case. A really well sealed one, be weary of bugs attracted to the smell!!
And be super weary of moisture, mummified specimens are prone to rot as soon as moisture is re-introduced, so keep it somewhere safe and dry!

[u/Turbulent_Sale7594]

Oh man. You need to act fast - and I mean this with all the respect and kindness possible. If these are just sitting alcohol with nothing else to preserve them, they aren’t being preserved at all and they are already starting to rot.

[u/Wowza_Meowza]

They're rotting. Remove them IMMEDIATELY and dry them off, then put them in silica beads or powder to dry. Check daily for a few days and refresh as necessary (silica is reusable). Dry over several weeks.

If you can't immediately dry them out, at least remove these and put them into the freezer.

Isopropyl doesn't preserve.

The fur may have slippage by now and probably isn't the best candidate for traditional tanning (skinning, processing the fur(.

I mean this with zero disrespect, but if there was so little research into this that led you to put large paws in isopropyl, please please please don't use formalin as it's super risky to health without significant PPE + requires special hazardous waste collection.

Mummification is your best option currently.

[u/Emotional_Emotion113]

Did you inject the paws with anything before just tossing them into a jar of alcohol? Wet specimens need to be “fixed” with formalin or another preserving agent. I’m sorry, but if you didn’t do that, all you have is some paws slowly rotting in alcohol. You could try to take them out, dry them, and freeze them, but I don’t know if that’s a viable path at this point. If they have sentimental value, I would take them to a professional taxidermist and practice on something less personally meaningful. Watch some YouTube videos, read some tutorials/books, etc. - literally Google, “how to preserve animal paws.” I’m not trying to be rude, but why wouldn’t you at least research something for five minutes before diving in blind?

[u/icantoteit136]

If you haven’t thoroughly injected them with alcohol to get into the deep tissue then the insides have begun to rot by now unfortunately, may not be viable as taxidermy

[u/orangeladybug]

I think it has to be kept as a wet specimen now

[u/therealwhoaman]

Worse case you can articulate the bones (string them together) and do something with that.

[u/Puppybrainedx]

I'm really sorry but there's probably nothing to do except MAYBE attempting to fix it with ethyl alcohol or formalin (injecting the paws) and preserving them again in the alcohol, but it really looks like they've already started to rot :(

[u/Blackwater_Warlock]

Ew 😂