Broken Toe Treatment

[Guest Sportingfields]

My dear friend's Greyhound has broken one of her toes. The vet recommended amputation and they are hesitant to do so. Can you share your experiences with broken toes and treatments. Pro & con thoughts to amputation?

 

Thank you

Christel

[lovinggreysslp]

Clay broke a toe and the vet wrapped it, showed me how to rewrap it, we limited his movement (ie leash walked in the yard, no running at all, no walks), and gave an anti inflamatory. We had it re-exrayed at 4 weeks and then 8 weeks. He healed just fine and is back to normal activity.

[Guest Sportingfields]

Can you tell me which toe on which foot broke? Also, did you do the wrap & limited activity for 8 weeks or less? The pup in question is around 3 yrs old and she still has the energy of a puppy and loves to run in the field and take long leashed walks with her folks. They just want her to be able to resume her activities without further injury.

 

Thanks for you help

Christel

[Guest greyhoundis]

Clay broke a toe and the vet wrapped it, showed me how to rewrap it, we limited his movement (ie leash walked in the yard, no running at all, no walks), and gave an anti inflamatory. We had it re-exrayed at 4 weeks and then 8 weeks. He healed just fine and is back to normal activity.

 

 

This is exactly the treatment for Rugby. He broke his second toe on a front paw. I took him once a week and they wrapped it we xrayed 3 times during that period and kept his activity to a minimum. 2 years later you would never know it! They also said it was a very strange break so we were all glad it healed like it did.

[Guest Sportingfields]

Oops, I'm an egg face, toe is not broken but "it's severe dislocation of p2 and p3 on outer rear toe" ligament damage.

 

Additional thoughts very appreciated by the worried Papa.

 

roos

Christel

[Guest sheila]

My Kiowa severely dislocated a rear outer toe. The vet wrapped it and told me to leave the wrap on 7-10 days. I took the wrap off after just 3 days to have a look and I'm glad I did. The toe was completely dislocated and bone was protruding from the pad! Kiowa then had to have the toe amputated. The recovery was a month of potty breaks only, then another month of leashed walks and after that he was back to normal. You wouldn't even know he was minus a toe unless you really looked.

[Guest luluaz]

Oops, I'm an egg face, toe is not broken but "it's severe dislocation of p2 and p3 on outer rear toe" ligament damage.

 

Additional thoughts very appreciated by the worried Papa.

 

roos

Christel

Max did this to his outer toe, post bath zoomies. Cotton padding, tape and vet wrap, four weeks later, good as new!

I changed the whole bandage setup about twice a week or when it got wet.

My vet gave me the lesson in bandaging and then the thumbs up on the healed toe.

Max is 6 months from that date and no issues, plenty of excercise, running, street walks.

Good luck, I know that had his healing gone badly, toe amputation is no big deal for these kids!

 

Lisa

[robinw]

loca broke a toe last year. it was the bane of both of our existence. the vet wrapped the foot and i was supposed to keep it wet. i put a thick iv bag around the foot with an elastic every time i walked her. once it came off and the bandage got wet, resulting in an infected sore on the toe. it was treated with antibiotics. it took several rounds to clear, but it eventually did.

 

ETA that it took longer for the toe to heal than it did for her broke leg to heal a year earlier.

Edited July 1, 2007 by robinw

[onrushpam]

A severe dislocation can be MUCH more difficult to heal than an outright broken toe. We're currently trying to save the same toe on one of our youngsters. He had surgery to repair the tendons/ligaments a couple of months ago and just recently returned to moderate exercise. (He is allowed out alone, not with other dogs and only in our smallish dog yard, not in the big paddock.) It's not looking good. He will probably lose the toe eventually. :-(

 

My first choice, with such a young dog, given your location, would be to take him to Dr. Radcliffe in Wheeling, WV. If it can be fixed, Dr. Radcliffe will do it. If he doesn't think the prognosis is good, he will recommend amputation.

 

Your friends might be able to have their vet contact Dr. Radcliffe and discuss it before making the trip up there.

[rycezmom]

Five different sets of broken or dislocated toes over the years. Have never had to amputate any of them. Have posted this x-ray before. Dislocated in two directions, short acting sedation (Propofol) to reduce, rechecked to make sure that the reduction was right, wrapped, splinted, four weeks later and several rewraps rechecked, two more weeks wrapped/splinted for good measure. No problems other than Gus thought it was OK to run wrapped and splinted and scared the c--p out of me cause I thought he'd break his leg. I put a stop to that REAL quick! The vet would really have to give me a GOOD reason to amputate before I would go that route. However, that said, it also depends on the break, tendon/ligament damage, does it require surgery or can it be done as a closed reduction. Good luck and I hope the houndie keeps the toe.

[Guest Sportingfields]

Thank you so much for all the replies, will post an update once I find out what they are going to do.

 

roos

Christel

[Guest greysadv]

Wow, the x-ray that was posted looks exactly as my boy's did last August when he dislocated his toe (outer toe, right rear foot) while running in the yard. A couple vets at the emergence/specialty clinic recommended amputation, but we chose to try to save the toe with a splint. We splinted it (our vet showed us how and we changed the bandage/splint every 4-5 days) for 8 weeks. It healed great.

[Guest Sportingfields]

Update on Bit's toe, the folks went for a second opinion this morning and the decision was made to amputate the toe, which has been done and she is just now home from the hospital, taking a nice nap on her favorite bed. The folks asked me to pass on their thank you's for your valuable input.

 

Roos

Christel

[Guest greytful4]

My girl broke her outside toe on her hind leg and the e-vet put her in a spoonbill splint . She had that on for one week and a soft bandage for another two weeks...can't even tell it was broken! She got the wrapping off last week and just has two small pressure sores that have healed up as well. I was really worried at first,but she's none the worse for wear! Hope your friend's hound does as well as mine!