Limping -?fractured Toe

[Cook]

Hi there,

My 3yr old lab has been limping since Sunday. We think he has caught his foot on some wire/metal stairs at a friend's house as he was most reluctant to walk down the stairs the following morning and was limping. No one saw what happened. He seemed ok on Monday to the point I took him for his usual walk/run... but ever since he is limping again. He clearly has pain in his 2nd most outer toe on his front foot. Very tender and now a bit swollen. I took him to the vet on tues who gave him some anti-inflams and said we could xray if no better in case he has a foreign body in there or if fractured- grass seed/piece of glass etc..

I googled (bad idea) about toe fractures and read various info about whether you splint or not to splint etc. The vet on the phone today said that if fractured and displaced on the xray, then they would operate on a different day to put a wire into straighten it. I've also read that you could just leave him alone with rest.

Obviously he will need to be anaesthetised to have the xray - so I was after your opinion on whether you would go for a xray in the first instance, or if the treatment is rest then is it worth putting them through the anaesthetic at all.. Also what experience do people have with fractures needing splinting /operations etc?

I've got about an hour to decide whether we book him in tomorrow or whether to leave until Monday

Thanks.

[Kirislin]

they dont always anaesthetise them for an x-ray, depends on how co operative the dog is. Sounds like he needs it though.

[persephone]

if he is a nice co operative dog he may not need anaesthetic ... did your vet tell you he would?

[tlc]

My oldest dislocated his two a few years back, the vet did quick X-ray (no anaesthetic ) it showed his toe was only slightly displaced, the vet thinks he had dislocated it and as he kept running on it had actually popped it nearly back in the right position. 2 weeks no excersise and 2 weeks on lead and he was food as gold. Good luck.

[piper]

My old girl cracked a sesamoid bone in her toe as a puppy. We xrayed but she only needed very light sedation, not a full anaesthetic. End result for her was just rest and time. It took ages - everytime I thought it was fine she would knock it twist awkwardly and it would flare up and she would limp again, it did get there in the end though.

[Rappie]

Whether to splint, not splint or do surgery depends on the dog, the injury and the owners - its not always clear cut and the decision is often based on the results of xrays.

A side comment about taking xrays - as a general rule I will GA most patients that require xrays. There are some exceptions obviously such as critical patients, heart patients, pregnant animals and so on but unless I trust that the animal will sit quietly on a slippery xray table, that is about 70cm from the ground, while restrained with only sandbags or towels then they will be asleep or otherwise chemically assisted.

Other vets may make different choices, but I have better things to do than expose myself to radiation each and every time I need to take an xray, it means we get better views with less re-takes and a brief GA is in many cases much safer than deep sedation. It's also keeping with the ALARA principle of working with radiation. I will not allow owners to be in the xray room and if someone does need to hold an animal then we rotate through our willing staff and use appropriate PPE.

[OSoSwift]

My dog has had many toe X-rays - only sprains/ strains so far thankfully!

She hasn't been GA'd however she is well trained, happy to be handled and has a solid stay.

These days I tend to strap ASAP with a technique gained from experienced Whippet racing people and they have healed quickly and without issue while allowing the dog to exercise :)

[Cook]

Thanks all for your replies. Having phoned up to get him booked in for an xray today, typically this morning he seemed a lot better.. so we've left it for now. Much less limping - he is just licking at it a lot. I wondered if he caught the toenail perhaps. We'll see how he goes over the weekend and if still limping/worse again by Monday we will go for an xray. He is a big pansy and had an xray once before, so I reckon he will probably need a full GA- we are over in the UK at the moment and as yet to 'test' the insurance company.. however were quoted the equiv of about $1000 which seemed a lot more than at home.

Thanks all.

[OSoSwift]

wow $1000 for and Xray and GA is a lot are you sure that didn't cover splinting etc as well?

[Kirislin]

I'd be keeping him as quiet and inactive as you can for now then. Dont assume because he's not limping as much it's better. If you're wondering if he's just hurt his toenail cant you see, will he let you look at it?