I feel awful posting about this on Snowie’s 10th birthday, but the op is tomorrow and I’d be interested in opinions and things I should be asking my vet.
On 20 Dec, I took Snowie for a fairly long and brisk (on leash) walk—realised towards the end of the walk that I was late for a meeting, so I made him buck up the pace and shoot home (online work meeting). Later, I noticed he had a limp, back right leg. Woke up next morning and he was limping. Checked his foot and found a lump/swelling on his toe. Heart dropped. His mother had a lump on her toe. Turned out to be cancer and she died. That was last year I think, maybe 2020. She was about 12 years old. Immediately made a vet appointment. But luck would have it that our area had a massive power outage so the vet couldn’t X-ray. She was very stressed, new young vet. Our vet was away. She lanced the area but only blood came out, no puss. Prescribed antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and pain meds. We were due to go away with Snowie to a beach holiday town for 5 nights. Vet said if swelling didn’t come down, then must have an X-ray to check for cancer and that an untreated infection could get into his bone, lose a leg. Lovely way to start a holiday after such an exhausting year. I’d been so looking forward to relaxing. Now all could do was worry.
Thankfully my brother’s father-in-law is a retired vet. Lives close to where we were holidaying. He took one look at Snowie’s foot and said fungal infection, something sharp pierced the skin. Betadine to clean 3x per day, very difficult to clear up, painful. No X-ray needed. Definitely not cancer. Relief!!
Went back to vet after holiday. She was happy with the progress and the retired vet’s opinion.
But once the 10-day course of ABs ended, toe got worse. Back to vet. New vet now has Covid. Regular vet is back (had been working over Christmas in the UK!). Said we must remove the lump and get it analysed. Will also do a culture to work out if fungal infection. Said she won’t be able to get a decent tissue sample with a needle biopsy, so once she was cutting, she wants to remove it completely. She doesn’t thinK it’s cancer because only the lymph nodes in the limping legs are swollen; said with cancer all the lymph nodes would be swollen. But she said she doesn’t know what it is, and she doesn’t see fungal infections regularly like the retired vet said he sees.
She’ll also X-ray the foot. And his front right leg, because he has started limping on it as well, although only when walking on sand or gravel, not smooth surfaces. He had originally been chewing his front right foot before he started limping on the back leg, so I wonder if he stood on something on both those paws. I did try to check the front paw at the time, but he’d pull it away as soon as I tried to feel in between the pads as if very painful. The swelling on the back foot looks like it has a hole. I’m hoping it’s a grass seed. But there’s no puss and there’s nothing hard under the skin to feel. A spider bite? We have loads of small black jumping spiders that do bite and leave a hole if you happen to stand or lie on them. Highly unlikely, but I once got bitten in my sleep! Nothing serious.
So, he goes in tomorrow. No breakfast. And we take him at 10.15am. So that’s a lot of no-breakfast time! Dreading that!
Here’s a pic from today. The vet shaved the area on the first visit. It looks terrible in this pic!
On 20 Dec, I took Snowie for a fairly long and brisk (on leash) walk—realised towards the end of the walk that I was late for a meeting, so I made him buck up the pace and shoot home (online work meeting). Later, I noticed he had a limp, back right leg. Woke up next morning and he was limping. Checked his foot and found a lump/swelling on his toe. Heart dropped. His mother had a lump on her toe. Turned out to be cancer and she died. That was last year I think, maybe 2020. She was about 12 years old. Immediately made a vet appointment. But luck would have it that our area had a massive power outage so the vet couldn’t X-ray. She was very stressed, new young vet. Our vet was away. She lanced the area but only blood came out, no puss. Prescribed antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and pain meds. We were due to go away with Snowie to a beach holiday town for 5 nights. Vet said if swelling didn’t come down, then must have an X-ray to check for cancer and that an untreated infection could get into his bone, lose a leg. Lovely way to start a holiday after such an exhausting year. I’d been so looking forward to relaxing. Now all could do was worry.
Thankfully my brother’s father-in-law is a retired vet. Lives close to where we were holidaying. He took one look at Snowie’s foot and said fungal infection, something sharp pierced the skin. Betadine to clean 3x per day, very difficult to clear up, painful. No X-ray needed. Definitely not cancer. Relief!!
Went back to vet after holiday. She was happy with the progress and the retired vet’s opinion.
But once the 10-day course of ABs ended, toe got worse. Back to vet. New vet now has Covid. Regular vet is back (had been working over Christmas in the UK!). Said we must remove the lump and get it analysed. Will also do a culture to work out if fungal infection. Said she won’t be able to get a decent tissue sample with a needle biopsy, so once she was cutting, she wants to remove it completely. She doesn’t thinK it’s cancer because only the lymph nodes in the limping legs are swollen; said with cancer all the lymph nodes would be swollen. But she said she doesn’t know what it is, and she doesn’t see fungal infections regularly like the retired vet said he sees.
She’ll also X-ray the foot. And his front right leg, because he has started limping on it as well, although only when walking on sand or gravel, not smooth surfaces. He had originally been chewing his front right foot before he started limping on the back leg, so I wonder if he stood on something on both those paws. I did try to check the front paw at the time, but he’d pull it away as soon as I tried to feel in between the pads as if very painful. The swelling on the back foot looks like it has a hole. I’m hoping it’s a grass seed. But there’s no puss and there’s nothing hard under the skin to feel. A spider bite? We have loads of small black jumping spiders that do bite and leave a hole if you happen to stand or lie on them. Highly unlikely, but I once got bitten in my sleep! Nothing serious.
So, he goes in tomorrow. No breakfast. And we take him at 10.15am. So that’s a lot of no-breakfast time! Dreading that!
Here’s a pic from today. The vet shaved the area on the first visit. It looks terrible in this pic!
. Sending healing and positive thoughts 
