Would you chase a specialist referral or not?

[Champagneforeveryone]

DDog2 (age 7) has managed to fracture her toe, the outermost one on the front paw. We believe it happened on Boxing Day.

She initially saw the vet who gave pain relief and ordered rest. We followed this but pretty soon after she was back out it happened again. This time the vets x-rayed and saw a nasty fracture on the joint itself. We're currently in our 5th week of total rest and the toe does not appear particularly stable (to my untrained eye!) DDog2 is bored witless and is starting to cause issues with bin diving etc - hardly surprising as she's hardly left the house in 3 months.

The options we were given if it does not stabilise are amputation or referral to a specialist for pinning and other witchcraft.

I'm just trying to gain advice on the best course of action. Ideally we would chop all her feet off and fit her with casters but this seems frowned upon

Her insurance will cover the costs up to £7000 (minus what we've already paid) so a specialist referral is not particularly an issue, but I'm unsure whether it is a little bit of overkill? OTOH I have had a dog with a toe amputation previously and it was not a fun experience for any of us, and surely that's why I pay her insurance every month?

My dog had an amputation of the end knuckle of his outermost toe , it was a bugger to heal but he has issues with healing generally and he certainly wasn’t rested for anything like 5 weeks . It was actually one of his easiest wounds to deal with as we just had him in boots . I think in your case I’d be getting a second opinion purely because it shouldn’t have taken this long to reach the stage you are currently at .

I know floralnomad, I feel so desperately sorry for her as she obviously has no idea why DDog1 is going out and she's not. Likewise, the boundary training and enrichment toys we use involve her crashing about on her silly little trotters which is obviously off the cards for now.

I'm conflicted with our vets. We've used the same practice for 20+ years but I do feel that as it's grown and become more corporate (for want of a better word) the service we've received has been more patchy. I'm just frustrated we're three months down the line and no closer to her getting back to normal.

I know what you mean , we’ve been with our vet for 40+ years but they’ve recently sold to a big company , stopped doing equine ( the vet is injured and they can’t replace him ) and much as I like the reception staff who I’ve known for a long time there is now only one vet ( the clinical director) that I like / trust and if he goes I shall change like a flash as they are quite expensive and I drive past several other vets to get to them . I hope you get it sorted , I’m fairly sure when ours had his toe off it was a 3 /4 week job from start to normal , or as normal as he gets .

Loss of an outside toe will not affect her much, once it has all healed up, unless she is particularly overweight. If it was one of the middle toes I would be more concerned, as they do most of the weight bearing and would be 'missed' more.

If you want a second opinion, then definitely should be with a specialist orthopaedic vet - only you can decide if it's overkill or not!

I'd see a orthopedic specialist then will know what options are available and at least be sure if amputation is what's needed. It maybe they can review xrays and give an opinion by phone. They often seem to do the consult, diagnostics and any surgery same day when I've been to ortho vets.

Vets can refer to specialist they prefer (if corporate sometimes they also own orthopedic/vet hospitals) & I've chosen specialists myself a couple of times, request usual vets to the send dogs history & copies of xrays.

Thank you, that's all really helpful.

DDog2 has always had issues with her feet. She's most likely a Staffie X Whippet, but has unfortunately been gifted the delicate feet and speed of the whippet, coupled with the bulk and manoeuvrability of the Staffie. Fortunately she's not overweight (despite strenuous efforts on her part!)

We won't know anything really until she's allowed outdoors again and we can see how the toe bears up, but I'm not overly hopeful.