Amy broke her toenails
Two nights ago, Amy was acting odd. Dan ended up staying up until 3 AM with her, she was in pain but we couldn't tell where or how. After he went to bed, I stayed up the rest of the night/morning with her. We finally figured out that she had a sore paw, but having a dog that gets aggressive when in pain makes dealing with it a little hard. She's really good about being muzzled though, so I finally got close enough to see most of the problem. Somehow she had broken two toenails. I took a picture with my cellphone (which I highly recommend doing from here on out). So yesterday, we got her into the vet, where she had to be sedated so they could look at her foot. Again, that decent picture off the cell phone while Amy was all Sith Lord in her Vader mask, made it really easy to come up with a treatment plan. They sedated her, took care of the outside toenail that needed to come off, then cleaned up the inner nail which had half taken off of it too. Poor girl was so drunk all evening from the sedative. So the bonuses of yesterday: Muzzling Amy occasionally when it wasn't as important to do so, has made her very accepting of it when she needs it. This kept everyone safer, including Amy. Getting a good picture of the injury really helped with getting her treatment planned and implemented right away. That meant less time for her in the vet's office. Also, she was well behaved even though her foot was really sore. This is a huge improvement. She did not want to be left alone at all yesterday. She wanted someone to be touching her at all times. So she laid with her head in a lap all day until her vet appointment. The downside, beyond the obvious, is that Amy saw a different vet at the clinic. This vet was concerned about Amy's behavior, too. Ninety-five percent of the time Amy is a doll. That other 5% is what we have to plan and watch for. |
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| Oh, and the shoes I bought her this winter for her iceballs have come in handy. She's wearing them to protect her bandage and give her traction. I'm glad she had practice with them. She was perfectly happy when I put a pair on her back feet (probably because her girl was shoving treats in her face at the same time). Now she's out playing frisbee with the kids. I'm also glad I took Dawn's advice and started trimming between the toes. They were a tad longer than I usually have them, but still not as bad as they could have been. It made it much easier to see when I was trying to figure out what was wrong. |
| Keep a look out for shores on her feet from the dog shoes. We had to put socks on Violet when we put the shoes on her or she would get sores. |
| Thanks! I didn't think about that. I'll get a kid's sock out and put it on the other foot that isn't sore. The bandage will protect the sore foot from the shoe rubbing. She didn't like just one shoe on the bandaged foot to start with, so I put one on the other back foot to even her out. She was perfectly happy with that and left both shoes alone. |
| We always have issues with mats when we put shoes or socks on the dogs. Ugggh! Daily combing helps, but with sore toes... |
| Tiggy did the same thing twice when she was around 1 & 2 years old. It would happen after she'd been running around like crazy on soft ground. We think her claws would dig into the soft ground and then tear. She got a nail bed infection and I had to bathe her foot in a bleach bath twice a day for 6-8 weeks. Maybe it was coincidence but I started giving her fish oil after the first episode and she was fine till I ran out and didn't get round to replacing it for a few weeks. Then the second episode happened. She still gets fish oil, it can't hurt and is good for other reasons. |
| Poor Amy. Do you have any idea how she did this? |
| We don't. We had a big day playing around outside and doing yard work that day, but she seemed fine. I wondered if it was when we went outside that night and were looking at the stars. The kids were running around the yard in the dark and the dogs were too. She started acting odd that night, and that was when Dan stayed up with her. I did read that if a dog does have these type of nail injuries they are more susceptible to repeats. So its something we'll have to keep an eye on for her. I also read that some people supplement with gelatin when their dogs have repeated nail injuries and that it helps reduce the number of incidents. I didn't read any studies, it was just anecdotal evidence. I also read that dogs that are susceptible to nail injuries shouldn't have their nails clipped, they should be ground with a dremel. It goes back to that susceptibility for repeat breaks and splits. |
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