Dog may lose its pad or worse

[chuck]

Running dogs they often get pad injurys, it often appears that they have stepped on locust thorns. There paw will swell and a pustule may or may not develop. If it appears, it will rupture and the swelling will go down. In about a 3-4 day period, they may still favor the paw, but they are running on it. Between me and my hunting partners, this is something we see monthly. I had a dog which appeared to be have this happen. His paw swelled, a pustule developed, and on the second day I pricked it and allowed it to drain. Normally the next day the swelling in the paw is mostly gone and the dog is moving around alot better.

On day three, the paw was noticeably worse. The spot of the small postule was now a small hole in the top of his foot. The bottom of his paw had two spots that that were oozing blood, and the swelling was still present.

I brought the dog to the vet and today is day four. I went check on him and about 1/3 of his pad closest to his leg is gone. You can see the bones in his foot by looking in either the hole in the top or the bottom of his foot. Has anybody ever had a dog lose all or the majority of its pad.

[jerryg]

sounds like a snake bite, we had a dog bit in the face and you could actually see from the inside of the mouth through the bottom of her tounge, vet cut it to drain.. She healed up nicely...foot may be another issue since they are constantly on it...good luck

[chuck]

Yes, snake bite is what is probably most likely. The other possible causes that were brought up was a water borne bacteria. We were hunting in swampy areas the whole day. The vet said that it was not infection from a thorn, and that it could have been caused from severe bruising which in turn limited blood supply to the foot. He said the most common cause of an injury like this would be if a dog was to be caught in a leg hold trap or something of that nature. The loss of blood supply would cause the foot tissue to begin to die.

[TimmsHogDogs]

This may sound stupid but have you ever heard of a brown recluse bite? We had a few dogs and cats (and not to mention Ive been bitten twice by them) It will literly start rotting there flesh because of the poison. If you put them on a strong antibiotic, we normally use penicillon. It will look worse at first because it has to clean out the poison and deteriorated flesh but in a few days it will start to get noticably better as long as the dogs dont pick at it. It might sound wierd but its true. It might be worth asking about.

[chuck]

I have seen a brown recluse bite, and this looked just like it. The necrosis was not in one location like would be expected with a spider bite though. The cause is a mute point at this time, but I would like to know what it was, will never know for sure. He has kept the majority of his pad, so the outlook is better than was first expected. He has lost alot of the tissue in his foot, but in time should heal.

[TimmsHogDogs]

Im glad your dog is getting better!