Dislocated Toe Correcting Itself?

[Guest GreyDogsRule]

Last night, one of our hounds was lying down and crying. He had just come in from the back yard after having a good run. I started looking at him and noticed the outside toe on his right back leg looked very strange. The toe was twisted back at a right angle. Instead of the toe pad being in line with the other toes, it was tucked up against the pad of his heal. It looked broken or dislocated to me. Our hound was kicking his back leg into the air. It was clearly painful.

 

I called our vet. She said he would be fine until morning with some Deramaxx which we had to help with the discomfort. When I got him up in the morning to go see the vet, his toe appeared to be fine. It was no longer twisted or painful. He was walking fine and letting me put pressure on it. I am curious as to what happened. It must not have been broken. Could it have been dislocated and just corrected itself or was helped by him kicking his leg into the air?

 

I did some searches regarding dislocated toes and found lots of stuff, but did not find anything about dislocated toes correcting themselves. I did find some discussion about how toes dislocate more easily after they have been dislocated once. It might be prudent for him to have a few quiet days without lots of running in the back yard.

[Guest Samantha]

Last night, one of our hounds was lying down and crying. He had just come in from the back yard after having a good run. I started looking at him and noticed the outside toe on his right back leg looked very strange. The toe was twisted back at a right angle. Instead of the toe pad being in line with the other toes, it was tucked up against the pad of his heal. It looked broken or dislocated to me. Our hound was kicking his back leg into the air. It was clearly painful.

 

I called our vet. She said he would be fine until morning with some Deramaxx which we had to help with the discomfort. When I got him up in the morning to go see the vet, his toe appeared to be fine. It was no longer twisted or painful. He was walking fine and letting me put pressure on it. I am curious as to what happened. It must not have been broken. Could it have been dislocated and just corrected itself or was helped by him kicking his leg into the air?

 

I did some searches regarding dislocated toes and found lots of stuff, but did not find anything about dislocated toes correcting themselves. I did find some discussion about how toes dislocate more easily after they have been dislocated once. It might be prudent for him to have a few quiet days without lots of running in the back yard.

 

 

 

Im not sure how relevant this is, but we used to have a racer, that came off the track with 'toe cramp' and his toe used to look abit weird and he used to scream and kick his leg for awhile.

 

It may not be that but worth giving it a thought. Whatever it turns out to be i hope your greys ok x

[Guest Energy11]

My Curfew dislocated his outside toe a few months ago. Yes, it "relocated" itself, and was fine. I did give him Deramaxx for a few days, just to be on the safe side. These does CAN dis/and/re-located on their own.

 

Sending healing thoughts!

[Pepsi2004]

My Foley dislocated the outer 2 toes on her right hind - vet said to come in next morning, as it was after hours and she wasn't in pain - in fact, she ate all her supper! Within an hour or so, the toes were back in place. Foley has a very high tolerance for pain - once, she had broken her right hind leg - was putting some weight on it, but not much - took her to the vet - 6 weeks in a cast for the break. It really is tough living with a dog that doesn't show pain.

[Walliered]

Would the vet give me some Deramaxx to keep on hand?

[Guest KennelMom]

Yeah...they can pop in and out on their own. Once they dislocate they are more prone to popping out until it heals, so I'd leash walk and try to keep him calm. You'll have to ask your vet about the pain meds. They may or may not. The probably won't write the RX w/o seeing the dog though...

[Guest krystolla]

My father dislocated and relocated his shoulder once, he just sort of rotated back in. Made a pretty big impression on the 13 year old me -- yuck.

 

I think it depends on how bad the dislocation is, milder dislocations have a better chance of fixing themselves. Like so many folks have mentioned it's more likely to re-dislocate until it has healed really well so be careful with the exercise. You might want to go to the vet anyway, just to make sure that the dislocation wasn't accompanied by stress fractures or tendon damage. I don't know whether the treatment would be any different but the healing time might be.

 

If it was a really bad cramp, don't know if that happens to dogs but it might, you could check with some of the racing kennel folks on here to see what they do to supplement potassium. Ensure, probably, or bananas.

 

In any case, here's hoping your furball is feeling better soon.

[ahicks51]

I know a very experienced greyhound person who has a girlie that occasionally dislocates a toe; the dog will bite it and pull it, reducing the dislocation on her own.

[Ragsysmum]

One of mine dislocates the same toe quite often, outside toe left front foot, and within a couple of hours everything is back to normal again. I just leave him to it now and keep an eye on things.