Foot saga

[Londonkatt]

So my little terrier has had a problem with one pad on her front foot on and off since Easter of this year. It got cracked and sore, then better for a while, then worse - this pattern carried on for ages with many vet trips, antibiotics, anti fungal drops, and various creams and protective waxes.
My local vet did not really have any answers so we were eventually referred to a bigger practise. She had a ct scan which showed a foreign body so they recommended surgery.
The surgeon didn’t find the mystery foreign body, only some scar tissue which was sent for testing but showed nothing.
This was 2 weeks ago, now she is very lame from the surgery which has left raw skin on her pad, she is wearing a hard plastic collar 24/7 and we are both miserable, I am scared the surgery seems to have just made things worse and we have no real answers.
We are going back for a follow up appointment in 2 weeks, the vet says we just have to wait and see what happens next - not sure what I want from posting really I guess just a hand hold and maybe any good news stories about foot surgery in dogs!

Maybe I just underestimated the recovery time, but there’s no guarantee it will even make a difference as we still don’t really know what’s wrong.

She is only 3 so should be running around chasing squirrels.

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Was the foreign object the scar tissue? We had similar with one of mine, exploratory surgery found nothing, it was then bothering him and it turns out he’s allergic to chicken. Chicken removed from diet, problem solved.

Pads can take ages to heal. I’ve had multiple sliced open, stood on a blackthorn. We’ve got boots for gentle walks and socks for indoors, the helmet is such a trauma. I hope yours recovers soon.

 

[Londonkatt]

Oh that is very interesting, I am actually about to change her kibble away from one that has chicken in just in case. The rotten animal has form for eating socks though which doesn’t help my nerves! Thanks for replying.

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Oh that is very interesting, I am actually about to change her kibble away from one that has chicken in just in case. The rotten animal has form for eating socks though which doesn’t help my nerves! Thanks for replying.

Cooking changes the protein, so mine is ok with very rare bits of cooked scraps, they’re raw fed otherwise. Definitely worth trying an elimination diet.

Can’t help with the socks issue: a friend at the yard had a lab who ate socks and had multiple operations to the point where the vet said there wasn’t much intestine left to remove so she had to have nothing on the floor, ever.