On Wednesday i took my 2 dogs out for their walk, to cut a long story short, they ran into a wooded area as usual, i hear a loud yelp and Jack my GSD came out limpping Took him to the vets yesterday as he was still limpping alittle and to my stock and horror i had to leave him because the vet thinks he's broken 2 toes.  He was having his X-rays last night.  He's only 11 months old and i feel totally lost and it reminds me of when i had to have my Gordon Setter PTS, with only having 1 dog at home.

We find out this morning the results, if they are broken do they have surgery or are they left and  put in plaster?

Jane

Poor Jack, I guess it depends on where the breaks are, but as far as I know with toes surgery will not be needed, all they will do is strap them up. I wonder what he did to break his toes?

If I were you, I would keep your dogs close (they can still be off lead but walking and playing a few feet ahead in eyesight) until you are in a place which is open and then allow them to run further a field, at least you can watch and if Jack decides to do a big jump over a branch or ditch etc, you can quickly recall to stop him from hurting himself.

I hope he is ok, he will be home with you again today.

When my dog broke a toe last year he did it right in front of me. I had just let the dogs off lead and he ran about 20 feet and yelped. He'd stood on a stone. Funnily enough he still carried on with his walk after I'd checked for injury I hadn't found anything but an hour later I just knew something was wrong and took him to the vet. He had his whole leg put in plaster so stop him from using the foot :( He wasn't a very happy chappie ;) Thankfully it was a clean break, which is why I didn't realise for a while that there was something up with it, and healed quite quickly.

Would shorter toenails help, do you think? 

I know it can just be a weird, freak accident you have no control over too.  Apart from preventing your dog from having a normal life, after recuperation, I think we just accept that something could happen and pray it is not more serious.  Like my friend's dog who caught her toes in the little space between the boards whilst running down the dock and broke a leg.

Over the years my zois have had several broken toes between them, my vet has never xrayed them, and I certainly wouldn't want to leave them overnight. Usually they can feel them and just leave them to heel themselves, which they've always done well. Perhaps your boy has done somethign different to his?