Poor Vulcan. Last Friday he was being an excited idiot and prancing around on the lawn, he always behaves like that before going for a walk. When he finished and stood on the road, his front foot seemed to be bleeding, so we went on our walk (he seemed OK) and despite having a bit of bleeding overnight, it appeared he had just torn his toenail.
Since it still seemed to be causing him some discomfort, I took Vulcan to the vet yesterday. To the vet’s surprise, after sedating Vulcan to remove the remains of the toenail, the toenail wasn’t torn at all – Vulcan had in fact broken his toe – the very tip, with the nail and nail bed attached, had broken completely off.
He required sedation and a bit of anesthetic, wasn’t feeling to good last night but seems OK today and much more comfortable. Despite losing some of that toe, I’m sure he’ll be fine.
It is tempting to think that a torn toenail is not a big deal and just ignore it (Raro lost both of his dew claws with no problems recently) but if you have any concerns, the dog is in discomfort, or things don’t seem quite right, visit your vet. Don’t rely on advice on social media from people who haven’t seen the injury.
Update: removed the bandage today (48hrs later), looks very tidy. Now we just have to make sure he doesn’t lick it.
