Ryuk came back from our hike today, road in car, then came down with a mysterious foot injury about 10 minutes after we got out of car....

What I've been able to observe/feel

right front, outer toe

Painful to touch and walk on (it looks like you cut his foot off when he walks). He's also tucking it up and under when laying down (which is on his non-injured side)

No swelling, no visible marks in skin, skin color under hair appears normal. I can't see under toe between paw pads (he shrieks bloody murder when I try but I felt no open skin and a white cloth came back blood free.

Not in any weird position, nothing looks or feels off when compared with the healthy paw. I've compared his two front paws side by side and they're identical.

Still wants to move around, but has good enough balance to completely suspend bad paw.

Any ideas? I plan to keep him off of it tonight, if there's no improvement by tommorrow morning (or of one of you happens to know this to be the early symptom of horrible foot death) I'll bring him in to be looked at tommorrow

Sounds like early onset foot damage to me.

Sorry, this is just another one of those things that is so broad that there is no way to tell over the internet.

I'd watch him and take him in Monday if there was absolutely no improvement over the weekend. That is only my opinion. If you feel there is something more serious, by all means get him in earlier.

I'm with Michael I would also wait till Monday unless you see something alarming. Sounds like he sprained his toe which happened to a friends dog and I don't think the vet did anything except tell her to try and keep him quiet and it would heal on its own.

Another wait and see here.

With any sort of basic limping with no other symptoms my rule of thumb is three days of inactivity, and then if there's no improvement (or if things start to get worse) take them into the vet.

I find that about 80% of all limping clears up with three days of rest. Another 15% or so is improving and gone within a week of rest. The remaining 5% get worse/no improvement and they go to the vet.

Check the nail bed, see if the nail is fractured at the base.
With him sitting, extend the elbow forward to be sure it's not in the shoulder. He'll resent full forward extension if it's the shoulder.
Twist the "wrist", sometimes a fracture there will have little swelling.
Ticks on him lately?

I love having Betty around.

That is a great little checklist that I will go through the next time Turb comes up limping. There has been more than one occasion that Turbo was limping, and close examination showed blood around the base of a toe nail.

Thank you, Betty!:smile:

I thought Annabelle was having some kind of a seizure or had dislocated something once when she started running around with her rear leg totally extended and jerking it.

On the third panicked inspection I found a teeney weeny piece of a sticker in between her toes.

Pads and split nails come to mind also.

I checked the pads first, then nail (nothing). I pulled a tick off him today...but it was very fresh (he had a throughout check yesterday, this was after a few hours of playing in the woods, it was a wood tick, he's been tick free since winter before that, he's flea combed and checked cm by cm every other day, combed every day). When felt over it I'm pretty sure it's the toe, particularly the second or third joint back. He's got no problem extending his shoulders, elbows. He'll move the wrist as well. He'll actually put weight on his center toes if needed but is careful to stay off the bad one.

he ended up with a TINY bit of swelling (I've seen broken doggy toes...I've never seen one this not swollen if thats what it is). I applied some ice. He's remarkably quick on 3 legs....and seems to think he can still play frisbee....I'm trying to discourage that...apart from the limping he's in great spirits, being careful to put on his best "OMG I'M DYING" face every time someone goes near the treat jar >_>

Bee sting? A bee on clover in the grass after you got home?
If so, he should be better today.

Bee sting? A bee on clover in the grass after you got home?
If so, he should be better today.