Taking Care Of Sensitive Bruised Toe?

[jshell]

I came home yesterday to find Betty Joan limping pretty bad. I soon noticed that she had completely lost a nail on her back left foot and that her front left foot was very sensitive (she was avoiding pressure on the front more than the back). I’m suspecting an overturned baby gate (not gating anything in, but was just leaning against a wall upstairs until it was knocked over at some point yesterday) and my ski boots (they were knocked over, and are cruel and malicious hard plastic things with metal straps and velcro and crap) were involved. We went to the emergency vet and got the missing-toenail foot bandaged. The front foot just seems heavily bruised underneath, particularly on one toe. Betty was quite vocally sensitive to it yesterday, but hasn’t been today. However, she’s still limping on it pretty bad. The swelling is in the toe, but the bruising underneath seems a little more wide spread.

 

It’s unknown if something was pulled or crushed. The e-vet said best bet was to try to let it heal and that it would just be sensitive for a while.

 

Betty's on rimadyl and tramadol. Walking outside is rough as the cold dead grass doesn’t feel too good under that hurt foot, so we’ve only got pee so far today.

 

Any thoughts on what else I could do to help heal or take care of that toe? I made a quick cold compress but Betty would get a bit fidgety if I put too much pressure on that toe. Should I try to do a warm compress? Try soaking the foot in warm water? We might have epsom salts around...

 

I’ve got some boots around. Since Betty’s already walking funny on that foot, walking funny with a boot wouldn’t be too bad and maybe I could get her on the grass long enough to go potty. On the concrete and blacktop, she’s willing to walk on that foot (just very limpy), but on the grass she just starts hopping. Poor thing.

[MaryJane]

Did they take x-rays of the front and back feet? The reason that I ask is that Betty Joan might have fractured a toe. My Larry fractured his rear outside toe from running in the yard and it swelled to almost three times it's normal size so I would assume you would notice but, if it is one of the middle toes it might not be so obvious. If it is a fractured toe, casts are not usually used because it is a difficult area but, but Joan would have to be on "bed rest".

[jshell]

We didn’t do x-rays. The e-vet said that it’s a difficult area and even with an x-ray it was unlikely that we could do much. I’m suspecting a fracture, but just don’t know. My own vet (over the phone) reiterated that the pain meds are the best to do right now. Betty’s confined herself to bed rest automatically. We finally went poop, and she was so uncomfortable and sad walking on the grass, but does OK on hard surfaces. She seems to be doing a tiny bit better there, but it’s all still a pretty serious limp.