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Topic Dog Boards / Health / Broken toe amputation
- By zarah Date 20.05.10 15:11 UTC
Does anyone have any experience of this? My 6 year old Dobe broke his toe several months ago and also tore 2 ligaments in the toe at the same time. He was on metacam and short lead walks for 6 weeks and all seemed ok. The toe is still huge but the vets say that it is not soft tissue swelling and will probably not change in appearance due to "boney changes". He was ok for several weeks back off the lead, running around as normal etc, but over the last few weeks he now has lameness on and off that rest/metacam don't seem to touch. I'm going to have to take him back to the vets but think they are probably going to suggest this as we briefly touched on it when he was first diagnosed. Just wondered whether anyone has any experience of it...and how did the dog cope?

The broken toe is the inside toe of his front left foot (think this is good news because it's not a weight bearing toe..?) but he does turn his front feet in slightly when he walks which has lead to some arthritis in the joints on the outside of his feet (the right seems to be affected far more than the left though). Not sure whether removing the inside toe will put more pressure on the outside joint or not, but can't have him limping on and off like this forever either! He's already on glucosamine, msm, green lipped mussel and vitamin c.

Await any replies :-D
- By Jeangenie [gb] Date 20.05.10 17:33 UTC
One of mine had a toe amputated due to a very stubborn antibiotic-resistant nailbed infection. It was the inside toe of his right front foot, so very similar to your dog's. Once the foot had healed from the surgery he was fine for several years, but then started developing arthritic changes in the foot because the inside-middle toe (if you see what I mean!) was moving slightly to the left to assist cornering. We lost him to a totally unrelated condition about 7 years after he lost his toe, but it certainly hadn't been a handicap to him at all.
- By zarah Date 23.05.10 21:05 UTC
Hi Jeangenie,

Thanks for the reply. Very unsure what to do really as he already has what we call "wonky feet" due to the funny walk he has! Not sure whether removing a toe will just make matters worse, although it's at least on the opposite side to the already arthritic joint (and as far as I know the toe next to the broken one is normal for the moment at least!).

Didn't think he seemed too bad today so stupidly let him off the lead in the garden and he went demented chasing imaginary squirrels, even in this heat! Initially I did 6 weeks confined to the lead all the time when on walks/in the garden and confined to one room inside, but obviously not enough. Read on afew Greyhound forums about dogs with broken toes on total cage rest for 3+ months and even then they ended up back at square one the first time they ran so not sure whether any length of time will sort it out, especially with the torn ligaments as well.

Will update with how it turns out!
- By HuskyGal Date 24.05.10 18:57 UTC
Zarah,

Good to see you Honey! Just sorry the circumstances that have brought you back :-( No advice I'm afraid but just wanted to send best wishes and got everything crossed here for you and the Boy xx
- By Annabella [gb] Date 24.05.10 19:02 UTC
A elderly lab had his toe removed a couple of months ago he is doing fine,then again because of his age he walks very slowly anyway,

Sheila,
Topic Dog Boards / Health / Broken toe amputation

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