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Foot woes


Maralynn
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I'm pretty sure that Kolt has a thorn or something similar in the large pad on his foot. He's gone from an occasional hitch in his step to almost non weight bearing since Sunday.

 

I couldn't see anything then, but now I see an inflamed area that is quite tender to touch.

 

I started soaking with Epsom salts yesterday and now I'm debating how long I should try it before a vet visit is in order.

 

Any pointers on how you handle this sort of thing?

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I'd take him in right away now that you see inflammation and it hasn't worked itself out of the pad since Sunday. I feel like the paws are already so sensitive and if it's tender, he must be miserable.

 

If you can't get an appointment right away, do you have something antibacterial you could put on to prevent infection? And maybe the vet's office could get you some antibiotics to pick up? When Cal skinned her paw really badly last year, we called them and they said to just spray with something topical and if it didn't show signs of healing in 3-4 days, to call back and we could get some antibiotics to prevent a bad infection.

 

Paws heal really quickly though! I hope poor Kolt feels better soon!

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I'm still not 100% convinced that it's not a thorn or sliver. His foot is swelling a bit more tonight. After he went on anti inflammatory meds. Amd he still bumped it and yelped like there's some sharp pain in the pad - while on good drugs. I'll see what it's like in the morning but I may be calling them back.

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Well, he he's walking square and sound on all four feet. But he's also on meds. No swelling to speak of but he pad still looks a bit wonky and has some slight tenderness in a spot when I apply a little pressure with my finger.

 

So who knows. Of course then I was talking with a vet friend over the weekend and heard a horror story about two surgeries to find/get something out of a dog's paw pad.

 

We're continuing with meds, rest and foot soaks for now. It's a huge bummer because this weekend is SAR camp weekend and he won't get to work :(

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Hopefully, he's healing up fast!

But my story: Dog came up lame rather suddenly. Experienced folks at a site looked at him, decided it was likely a toe injury. Next day, drove 60 miles to an ortho vet - x-rays showed nothing, not a good exam (in retrospect). "Rest and rimadyl" - which I didn't like. By the next morning, he seemed to be dying! (Well, he didn't want to eat, and that's about the same for him - LOL!). Went to another vet - who said, somewhat apologetically, "I need to shave his foot." I said, shave anything you need to! She immediately found a red/inflamed hot foot - but nothing obvious to pull out (then or later). It would seem that he poked something in his toe that came out, but left behind nasty germs. Major infection began to clear up within a day with serious antibiotics. He healed nicely.

 

So....if you can get any antibiotics, it might be worth a try!

Best of luck.

diane

 

p.s.: Realizing how late my comment is (I've been away), it may be that an infection is clearing itself up!

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I didn't give him a dose of meds yesterday just to see what would happen. It was slightly more tender when I palpated it but he was still walking sound.

 

I've soaked it a bit more. Not exactly sure what to make of it. I would think that a ligament strain (what the vet was hinting at - thought it was ligament on the top of his paw with pain radiating to the pad) would show more tenderness yet. Especially since I was given both tramadol and rimadyl to give him for 2 weeks. I'm still wondering about a puncture wound of some sort or a severe bruise. Vet wasn't keen on dispensing antibiotics. But I do have some on hand in case something swells up fast.

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Okay this might be random and weird there is a chance it could help... One time my heel hurt so bad in one spot... Visibly I couldn't see or feel ANYTHING other than a bit of tenderness so I just figured I had stepped on a sticker and it was lasting a little longer (there are a lot of goats heads here) but by the next day I couldn't walk on my heel it hurt so bad... So I dug in there and found the worlds tiniest sliver of glass that had embedded enough that you couldn't see any break in the skin, but it was small enough that you couldn't feel it with the fingers either. As soon as I dug it out the pain dossapeared.

 

Immediately when I read your post it seemed like there might be something tiny in there that the vet is missing... It just might be worth getting a second opinion since he is still in pain.

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My guess is foreign body. I got a bit of glass in my little toe once and a callous formed. It finally peeled off and took the glass with it. Glass can be tricky to detect. When our son got glass in a large muscle, we had to bring in a sample so they could check that their machinery could detect it.

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I had a stinging feeling in one of my toes years ago. Couldn't feel a splinter or a lump or anything like that, except that every time I took a step, it HURT. Went on for a couple days, until I could find a friend who would look at it for me.

 

She found, with the aid of magnifying specs, a very small piece of hair stuck right into the underside of that toe. Pulled it out w/tweezers and the pain vanished.

 

Weird stuff happens. Hopefully the callous contained whatever it was that was bugging him.

 

Ruth and Gibbs

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