As the Toe Owchies...

So, recently I blogged about how Simon was limping badly, and we weren't sure if he hurt his leg or his back..

So, off the X-rays went to the specialist since my vet was unsure what it could be.

I was sitting with Si that night and sort of checking him all over again, and found that he had a rear hind outside toe that felt odd and swollen to me (and kind of clicky, eep!) Joanna of Ruffly Speaking had suggested it might very well be a toe break, as did Y. Now, you wouldn't think a toe would cause all those symptoms, but...

Darn Cardis are stoic! Oh man, are they stoic. Not a yelp, a yip, a grumble, a growl, nothing. In fact, touching his toe and having it make crunchy, awful sounds only meant that he could leap up afterward and go find a toy to make me throw it. Sheesh. Or lick anyone he could reach - my vet adores him, he's just a happy, friendly boy.

Well, the specialist couldn't find anything else on the X-rays. (Except that he did say, nice hips, and holy moly, that dog's muscled up. There's this big bulky shoulder muscle in the shot, haha. Simon's been working out with da Wubba!)

Of course the one place we didn't shoot was his hind feet. Now, after talking to the vet there's not a whole lot you can do for a broken toe in dogs. He figured that since he had stopped limping that it was likely either a dislocation or a fracture.

So, no running or playing much last week (yeah, good luck with that, Simon says heck no, playplayplaygogogo!) Today he came back to check up on him and yup, the toe was clicky. We decided to go ahead and take film to see for sure.

Both of us were like "Oh geeze!" when the film came out of the developer. It's a bad break on the P2; a lengthwise break with bone displacement right over the joint. Poor Simon! So then come the options -- ugh, pinning apparently isn't a great one. Casting him isn't either, in that he's an incredibly active (as those of you who have met him will agree) and our area is sopping wet right now. The vet feels it might do more harm than good.

So, we're trying to the old athlete's trick of taping two toes together for the next month or more, and hopefully it will heal up fine. He was concerned he might chew it off - nope! He looked at it, and then once he realized it was stable and not bothering him, off he went, skipping along and immediately tackled Caleb in delight.

I still don't know how he broke it; the vote is for flinging himself off the deck. Matt's vote, being the football guy he is is that Simon has Turf-Toe. We have decided to call it Wubba-Toe. Extreme sports, woo!

So, his $650.00 gosh-we've-X-ray'd-the-whole-Simon toe is taped up and he's as running and chirpy as ever. At least I have a great set of X-rays of his hips and shoulders and back for my records. Apparently he just flopped on the table happily and let them take all the shots they needed. Good guy!

I'm so buying him some cool colored vet tape; if I have to tape his toe for four weeks, we're going for fancy! ;)

(Ps: He says he feels just fine, no worries! Now let's play ball! Ball, ball, ball! He's got 15 other toes! Bring it on, baby! And thank you all for all the well wishes, aww.)

(PPS: Dad is totally coddling him, and don't think for a moment he's not taking advantage of it. Hey, this little new Canon Sure Shot is neat! Quick snapshot!)