Claxxton hurt his foot.

DianeWright

So, Claxxton & Joel were playing 'tug a war' with one of my old shirts and Claxxton's foot must have gotten stuck in it.  This was two weeks ago.  He yelped when it happened, and would have nothing to do with Joel or his play shirt for over a week.  He is still limping and licking it.  Joel seems to think it is his dew claw, but I have seen him licking between two toes.  Left front paw.  No bleeding, no swelling, no visual signs of damage.  However, Joel said he heard a 'pop' when Claxxton got hurt.  It's been two weeks, he is better but still limps.  Just stepping on the transition between wood floor to carpet with that paw last night caused him to yelp.  When it first happened all he wanted was him Mama (me), and to be pampered.  He is a lot better, but still hurts him.  I have made an apt. with the Vet for first thing Monday AM.  I don't know what can go wrong inside the foot.  Maybe we need to wrap it.  I have tried to keep him calm, no jumping.  So, when he starts feeling better he goes from Joel to me 'talking & crying'' he wants to play.  New puppy Bella wants to play with him, and he is cranky.   :-/

BulliesofNC

Bull Terriers are a glutton for self inflicted injury. More often than not a Bull Terrier can withstand a Bone fracture without causing too much concern with the owner due to their ability for pain tolerance. However, in the event a Bull Terrier is limping for more than a day there is a high probability that injury was sustained. With this said, I recommend that an x-ray be conducted in order to check for a fracture. I would also recommend that he be kept to as little activity as possible so he can recuperate from an apparent injury that is causing him pain and discomfort.

Djammy

Fancy once broke her toe during play. They are just so relentless - mostly against themselves - during play.

She broke it by a sharp instant stop from running (180 to 0) and then turning on that foot. That was too much.

She also only limped at first, but was hardly able to walk the next days. She always got very scared and confused, every time something was wrong with her health. I guess every BT reacts a little differently, although I have to agree to Steve's statement about their general pain tolerance. Not being able to walk properly really intimidated Fancy, so we took her to the vet.

Our vet at that time was sure it was a fracture, took an x-ray - and bingo! Her toe was broken (bone completely broken). He spoke about possible surgery and sent us to a "specialist" who told us to be punctual and then made us wait forever AT that appointment for evaluation and treatment. Plus everyone in that office was so cold and harsh that we eventually aborted this visit and went back to our regular vet.

Our vet then taped the foot - he was not equipped for that special surgery - and told us to keep Fancy as calm as possible for a while.

He told us that this was a TRY, which could be successful, if we succeeded in keeping Fancy as calm as possible in order to give the fracture a chance to heal.

We were lucky as far as owning a Bull Terrier who would have done EVERYTHING to please us. So getting her to calm down was possible for us.

We had to change the tape several times during that time and the doctor checked on the progress a few times. As I remember this incident took about 4-6 weeks for her to heal - similar to many fractures in humans. Afterwards she was fully able to walk again without pain or any impairments.

We were actually pretty happy afterwards that it was possible to treat this by taping. Not because it was probably a lot less expensive than surgery, but because we were able to spare Fancy the anesthesia.

Bull Terriers are so susceptible to problems caused by the anesthesia itself. I don’t want to scare you. If it is necessary to make a dog’s life better, its sure worth the risk. But I still was happy that we did not have to take that step. We’ve had to put her under that risk with a severe womb infection before, that left us no choice - and luckily at that time everything went well.

I think an x-ray is a good idea, as fractures can be so different. As soon as the bone is not only fractured partially and possibly even dislocated, that could become a problem in the healing process and in the future, if not treated properly.

Just telling you all this so you might get a better picture of what you are possibly looking at here.

DianeWright

Hey Djammy, thanks for the input.  I am taking him to the Vet on Monday morning.  I have already called them & told them I want x-rays.  I honestly think the taping idea may work for us.  He does get better, but then when he goes outside he tries to jump for the tedder ball it starts hurting him again.  The ball has since been taken down, so there will be no jumping.

BulliesofNC

:-B        :-?

philsergeant

Sounds like a bad bruise to me....

DianeWright

Took Claxxton to the Vet yesterday.  He does not have any broken or fractured bones.  What he does have is a puss pocket next to a nail that has gotten infected.  On the opposite front let he may have a pulled muscle.  Vet put him on antibiodics and anti inflamatory and said to keep him calm.  Great news, we were concerned he was headed for surgery.  

Djammy

"It's not as bad as it looks!"

That's the kind of doctor's visits I love! Bet it feels good to know for sure now.

Happy for Claxxton AND you! Hope, he's well soon!

BulliesofNC

That's good news. Things could have been a lot worse.

DianeWright

Yep.  We dodged the bullet there.  We were braced for the worse.  I had put a pyrex dish out for Willie to eat her yogart out of.  Somehow she managed to break it on the porch.  Claxxton had run out the door when I went out to get the broken dish up.  Apparently he had gotten a piece in one foot.  Nothing in there now, & is healing up fine.  We did not see it, as it is between the pads.  The other foot looks is a puss pocket beside nail.  That's probably when he was playing tug a war, and we thought that was when he got hurt.  I didn't tie the two things together.  The puss pocket is already drying up.  That's why we couldn't determine which foot was hurt, as one day he favored one, the next day he favored the other.  Both feet were sore, for different reasons.  Bullies will keep you on your toes. 

philsergeant

Yep... Those are typically the two positions you assume when owning an EBT... on your toes or on your arse!  One of the two.

bigbear1tracey

Or on face ribs front legs lol I don't know if anyone has ever had to do a ruby tackle dive bomb because of there bully but it bloody hurts especially when u have 7 discs in your back that have had it lol glad Claxxton is ok no broken bones and recovers well ....

exiled

So glad the news was better than expected, and that he's already on the mend.  Great news!

DianeWright

Thanks exiled.  Now I am trying to be creative getting Claxxton to take his medicine.  He's on to me, so I'm being very sneaky.  Anything I can hide it in. I cut the pills open and look for things I can hide the powder in.  I think he can smell it.  Little stinker!  

exiled

I don't know how big the pills are, but it suddenly dawned on us to cover his Benadryl with peanut butter or banana.  Sometimes, we'll grab a tiny piece of pita bread and put a little peanut butter with the pill.  Personally, I haven't had success with the pill pockets that are for sale in stores.

Of course, making super excited sounds like we're about to give him the best treat in the world helps him get excited with anticipation and he gulps it without realizing we've just tricked him into taking his medicine. 

philsergeant

We use those refrigerated Fresh Chicken Treats that you can get a Petco (and others), can't think of the name of them, I think it's DogNation,  they are about 2 1/2" long, and 5/8" diameter... With a 3/8" drill bit you can drill a core in them in a second by hand, and use the shavings as a plug.... They love those treats so much you could put a smelly politician or some other poison in there and they would still wolf them down.  Anything else they just spit out with , "hey! do you think I'm dumb or what?".

Djammy

Well, now I feel like a brute.
I just take the pill between two fingers, open her mouth a little and reach as deep into her throat as I can without hurting her, drop the pill and quickly close her mouth, then holding it closed until she swallows, which is usually immediately. Sometimes it takes a second try when she tricks me and manages to work the medicine out of her mouth after I release her. But that's usually it. Right after that she is getting one or two treats - makes her swallow again, and I offer water. Done! Usually she does not even realize what just happened.

philsergeant

The drilled treats are easier... toss them in the air and they catch and
swallow them, immediately asking where the next one is.... Give me a
minute, I'll post a photo.

Djammy

@philsergeant

What an elaborate idea! You should register a patent on that!

I'll keep that in mind just in case my "brute method" is coming to fail some day.