Slow Recovery From Toe Amputation

[Guest rocdoc76]

Our lovely 7 year old boy Santos had to have his outside toe on his left front foot amputated. He was running around in the yard and came up limping and upon examination his outside toe was loose. The vet x-rayed it and found that he had fractured the first bone in at least three places. She was not optimistic that she could splint it and we decided to move forward with amputation. It has now been five weeks and his wound is finally healing, he did pop a sutre in his second week of recovery which required an additional one. He also developed two pressure sores which are now closing. He is on his third round of antibiotics, as a precaution, and has been on pain meds since he got home. He is still very hesitant to put weight on the foot and we are concerned that he may never walk correctly again. Other than the setback during healing, is this still "normal" for a amputation recovery? It doesn't seem that pain is the issue and we wondering what we could do to help encourage him to use/trust his newly healed foot. We do take him on short walks (vet condones) and he sporadically uses the foot. Any advice would be appreciated.

[greysmom]

Sounds really about right. The pressure sores will take longer to heal than the actual surgical site, most likely.

 

He will eventually use his leg like he used to - it just takes time. Let him use ot or not at his own pace. Don't be surprised or upset if he tripods around for another couple months. His foot will continue to heal and will actually change shape to accomodate the missing toe. It took our girl about 8 months post amp to *really* be back to normal, following a routine amp surgery of a weight bearing toe.

[macoduck]

How many joints of that toe were removed? Gracie's toe was amped due to what turned out to be a rare but benign tumor. Vet stated that 2 joints needed to be removed (even though the tumor just surrounded the nail bed) so that the "nub" would not rub on the ground when she walked. It never bothered her and healed quickly.

[Charlies_Dad]

Our angel Jack had an outside toe removed and I recall it took 2-3wks for him to be comfortable on it again.

[LBass]

MoMo lost a toe because of a problem corn. He recovery from it was a bit longer than expected as well, primarily because she kept getting sores under the bandage. It was really difficult to keep the toe covered with out getting skin breakdown on her delicate ankles. Antibiotics and a "drying" powder to put on the ankle sore did the trick. As Chris says, it sounds about "normal". I became a champion foot bandager through those weeks, at least according to the vet techs.

[Guest rocdoc76]

Macoduck, the whole toe was removed. I would like to thank everyone for responding, your advice and insight has been encouraging.

[PrairieProf]

If you are on Facebook, join the Three Toed Greyhounds group. All I can say is experiences seem to really vary dog to dog. My girl had bad problems with sores and ripping sutures from her weight bearing toe amp years ago but walked on it from Day 1 after surgery. Everyone does seem to be fine eventually that I know of. I am wondering if your vet gave you adequate pain control. Also cold laser therapy will help speed healing.

Edited July 7, 2015 by PrairieProf