The lump on Kasey's paw I posted about last month ended up not being cancer, which was good news. But the diagnosis wasn't any better. He has RA in the toe joint of his outside toe, which makes it painful for him to walk on it (thus all the limping). It has gotten worse and you can see on the xray, that there are, what look like 'bites' taken out of that joint. So he has to walk in such a way that it causes trauma to the cells on the other side of his foot. The biopsy showed cells consistent with trauma to be present.

We have already exhausted everything there is to do, and that paw continues to get worse by the week it seems. We've done max doses of glucosamine/chron liquid, Adequan, pain meds, gabapentin, heat/ice, even talked to the acupuncture guy and laser guys and when they saw the xray they didnt think they could help

He walks better in the house on the carpet, but outside, the way he walks causes the pads of his foot to scrape on surfaces and they bleed, so we have to put a heavy sock on him to take him around the block each day. If we don't get him outside he's just going to be depressed - he is 9 1/2 yrs old and the rest of his body wants to play ball and run around, but he's 90 lbs (perfect body weight for his size the vet says), and that one toe is causing him to not be able to do much.

This is very sad to watch... we've never had to deal with this before, and aren't sure how to know when it's not fair to let him hurt.

Would a dog boot help. Like the kind they use for fly ball or sled dogs. Would provide protection, cushioning, watrrproof,maybe stability to the foot by taking pressure off the toe,Just a thought.

We had the same thought Anne, and went to several pet stores and tried them on. His foot is a lot wider now than a normal foot because of the lump, and the toe is all deformed, which has made the other other toes all weird too - it looks like the hand of a person with bad arthritis . All to say that the boots don't fit.

I don't know how the rest of his body is faring but have you thought about just strapping that leg to his body? Dogs do great as tripods for the most part. I'd be concerned about the additional stress on the other front paw but it's the only thing I could think of.

He does have mild osteoarthritis in the elbow of his other leg, so that isn't a possibility either. Our vet said at his age, with elbow the way it is, he wouldn't be able to function without all 4. We are stuck with an unwanted reality...

Any chance for a custom boot? Enmail Cindy...She or Ed may know of someone that makes them...of might be willing to do so to his measuements.