Swollen Toe Pad

[Mum to Emma]

I have a whippet that has been limping for a couple of weeks. Initially I assumed it was a recurrence of a shoulder injury (she tripped when walking and the limping started after that) and it seemed to improve over the course of a week. However after the lameness returned, I took her to the vet who prescribed meloxicam. This has had no effect and indeed I noticed today that the pad on one of the two middle toes of her front left paw (the sore leg) is swollen to double normal size. I'm pretty sure this is the cause of her pain.

The pad is swollen, slightly roughened but not inflamed. The toe bone above it seems normal and not swollen/broken. There's no obvious deformity looking down on the foot as I'd imagine there would be with a broken toe - only if you compare the pad to the next one do you see the increased size.

Any ideas? A corn?

Finding an experienced/competent vet at this time of the year is quite a challenge ....

[persephone]

foreign body/fracture/sprain/infection spread from nail ?

Sounds as if another pair of eyes is needed :)

[RuralPug]

It could be something as simple as a grass seed that was trodden on and is now fully within the pad. The vet should have checked her foot if the pad was swollen at that time (unless of course he/she was so convinced by your opinion of the reoccurring shoulder injury. No offence, but this sometimes does happen.)

Regardless of the actual cause, if the prescribed treatment is not working, then it is back to the vet (or a more competent one ).

Edited for clarity

Edited January 1, 2014 by RuralPug

[Erny]

Mandela had a swollen toe. By the sounds, considerably different to the swelling you describe - his whole toe and pad were swollen to twice normal size. I'm familiar with Mandela's issues, which relate to digestive and which result in body toxins that show up as various skin lesions from time to time. So whilst I believed I knew what was going on and had experienced and treated boil-like lesions between his toes before, this one was behaving a bit different and way more painful than the others and I was aware of the possibility of broken toe. Hence a Vet visit and an X-ray which ruled out broken-toe (yay!).

Once having the X-ray results ruling that out, like me and knowing Mandela's history, my Vet presented the option of poultice instead of antibiotics which in this case is what would ordinarily have been prescribed. We used magnoplasm as the poultice and visible signs of relief (he could at least put foot on the ground) were evident inside 24 hours. I re-did the poultice every 24 hours for 3 days. The swelling around the toe had considerably reduced and by this time Mandela was no longer limping on it. Left it alone after that, unbandaged, and what we believe was a boil which did not come to a head but the toxins from which were drawn to the surface of the skin, resolved.

Not suggesting this is your dog's problem and I think Vet's opinion to at least rule out other things that might require different treatment is important. But if you believe the problem could be a foreign body and this form of treatment will assist, perhaps the telling of our experience can be helpful.

Picture of Mandela's toe before treatment and 3 days after treatment (don't know if the sites on the skin showing where toxins were exuding will be identifiable) below.

Having trouble uploading photos

Edited January 1, 2014 by Erny

[SwaY]

Fracture toe confirmed via x-ray...

Pad twice the size underneath

[Mum to Emma]

Fracture toe confirmed via x-ray...

Pad twice the size underneath

Thanks for the replies. The foot looks different to your photo because the top is not swollen at all, just underneath.

We're just back from the vet who was puzzled by the state of her toe. Not broken and no sign of infection or a wart or corn. Just a very hard, very overgrown pad surface. She decided to smother the toe with an emollient and bandage the foot for 5 days in the hope that this draws out whatever is under the thickened surface. At the very least it should be easier to see if anything is buried in the pad when the surface is softened, and hopefully pull it out without resorting to xrays and surgery.