Rottie has lost his toe

[McBear]

My beautiful pooch has had a bad infection of the nail bed. Countless rounds of antibiotics and two ops later, they've taken the toe.

He's only 42kg but I'm so worried he's going to fall over all the time. It's his outside toe of his left hand. It's not weight baring as such but he'll be so confused and in pain! Poor thing!

Anyone been through this?

Betcha he'll do fine. From a weight bearing point of view - better an outside toe than a middle one and better a hind than a front; better a nicely healed amputation site than the chronic pain and infection of osteomyelitis (the infection probably would have got into the bone of the toe, if it hadn't already) and the associated soft tissue swelling. With some decent analgesia till it's healed, he shouldn't be too sore and he won't be confused - it's not as if he was getting good pain-free use out of the toe for the past while anyway, so he won't miss it. Sadly, plenty of Rotts get whole limbs amputated due to bone cancer, and most of them do pretty well on 3 legs.

My dog has just had partial amputation of the outside toe on his right front leg and he's managing fine ,our main issue is that he has just pulled off half a toenail from 2 nails along so I'm debating what to have done about that . My boy is a 12.5 kg Patterdale x and he's just been diagnosed with SLO so lots of toe nail issues until the medication hopefully starts to work . I did find that it took a long time for his toe to heal though and we had it bandaged and no walks for about 3.5 weeks as he can't wear a cone or buster collar . Best wishes to your boy.

Nodding, a few people have told me there rott had an amputated foot/hand and really struggled. It's great news to hear read you say that!

Floral, I think you told me about your dog before I NC'd. Poor thing

I'm picking him up at 17.40. Will smother him with cuddles

Oh its you ! ,glad you finally got it sorted out ,I think mines going to be an ongoing pain sadly .My head tells me I should have the latest split nail removed but I really can't put him through it again when he's only just got over the last one so I'm just keeping it clean and seeing how it goes . Fortunately the insurance company are being very understanding.

Which will cause him more pain? Thank god for insurance

Yes finally sorted. Took him two weeks ago tomorrow and they gave an expensive round of antibiotics but not enough improvement so operated on today. Leaving now

He's very sleepy and feels very sorry for himself. He walks but very very slowly. He had to be carried from the car. He's just on the sofa moping

I don't think it particularly bothers him ,if I walk a long way on concrete he has a slight limp , so I'm driving him to the field instead of walking . Around the house and on grass he's fine ,no limping and doesn't mind it being touched so I don't think he's in pain . There's also the issue that we could be in the same position with another nail next week although my DH has suggested we just have the whole lot removed

I was thinking that tbh. Would they grow back?

Apart from the amputated toe they should all grow back ,hopefully in better condition now he's on his medication - it just takes a long time.

That'll be good then. At least there is hope