dog holding paw up , advice ?

[thefootofourstairs]

Hi ,
My 3 year old Maltese has started holding up one front paw this afternoon. He will run and walk on it seemingly normally but as soon as he stops he holds it up again . Somethings wrong i know, but cant figure out what !
Just tried showering it but still the same .

Could it be a claw? A thorn or something tiny and sharp stuck somewhere in it?

My dog had an intermittent limp and it turned out to be a fractured nail.

Battendog had one and it turned out to be a tiny grass seed caught well in between his pads - his very excellent groomer found it! He would walk relatively normally but not put any weight on it and would limp immediately after resting etc.

One of the JRTs gets this when he twists or strains his leg - it goes away by itself after a couple of days of rest. He cannot walk on it normally, though.

i cant feel anything in there , hes not very happy about having his feet messed with though. That was my thinking when i showered it , thought maybe something would wash out . He goes to the groomer on friday .
he kept staring at me and 'talking' as he does earlier . obviously trying to tell me something . shame i don't talk dog ! poor little guy .

When FigDog did this last month it turned out that he'd torn his dew claw. It didn't hurt him to walk on, but it was v sore for him - quick trip to the vet sorted it out.

Take him to the vets maybe?

Soak it in warm water. I did this with OhDog and a tiny piece of leaf came out.

If that doesn’t work, try again with repeated soaks in salt water. DM swears by this for grass seed.

If there is nothing in the pad, in between the toes, or a damaged nail then he might have pulled a muscle. Is he licking it?

Might be a vet job if still the same tomorrow.