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I say “again” – but we didn’t write about this the last time it happened.

As many of you may know, Tank is our 100+ pound Black Lab. He and his smaller sister, Moon, make up the fur-baby component of our home (along with Rocky the cat) now that we are empty-nesters.

Tank has a knack for getting himself hurt.

He cost us about four grand in vet bills back in July of 2023 when he decided to sniff a copperhead snake. Antivenom is very expensive.

Then, he’s always splitting a claw, or getting a itchy spot and licking himself raw somewhere. He has a disturbing tendency to, whenever he senses something out in the woods at night, take off across our wooden back porch, and down a full flight of wooden stairs at full speed in complete darkness. So we often find him limping around for no discernible reason. No visible injury, but clearly a limp. With his reckless behavior, I guess we’re lucky he hasn’t managed to actually break a leg, or even lose his footing and fall down the stairs completely.

Well, back in the latter days of July, he was limping around the house. Checking the leg and foot revealed nothing, and on August 1 (a Saturday) his limp was worse. So I loaded him into the truck and drove him up to the 24/7 emergency vet clinic in Chattanooga.

Tank is weird. He’s the only dog I’ve ever had that actually gets excited about going to the vet. By excited, I mean “jump up into the truck with tail wagging” excited. Interestingly, when we got to the office, he hopped out of the truck, and his limp was gone! I’m not sure what to make of that, but he couldn’t wait to trot into that office with all those young girls who swoon over what a “big, pretty boy” he is.

Well, they took him in back to check him out. He went along happily. I was left in the triage room wondering if this was going to cost me X-rays, shots, surgery – WHO KNOWS?

Tank returned with the vet, and a different demeanor. He was cowering and hid in the corner. Apparently, a cold thermometer up the butt had changed his whole perspective of this trip. The vet said she couldn’t find anything, but was certain the leg or foot wasn’t broken. She thought he was probably suffering from an insect bite or sting on his foot somewhere. I got a $10 bottle of spray to apply to the foot and a $400 vet bill. (Emergency vets are always more expensive.)

So, once again, a few days ago, Tank started limping on his right rear foot. After a day of limping, he was keeping the foot up off the ground and not walking on it at all. Again, Angela and I felt and squeezed all over that foot and leg. He only reacted when we touched his toes, but there was nothing there. However, by the next day, I could see a patch of rawness between his two middle toes. As a precaution, I pulled out the handy-dandy medicinal spray from the last vet visit. We applied the spray, and wrapped his foot up.  Of course, with a bandage on his foot, Tank has to wear what Angela calls the “cone of shame” to prevent him from chewing off the bandage.

Over the next two days, that raw patch got bigger. It’s starting to heal up now, and Tank can put weight on the foot occasionally. But he still doesn’t like his cone. I’d say he has a few more days to fully recover.

Does anyone have any experience with a dog that suddenly develops a raw toe pad? I’d love to know what could cause this. The bad spot is actually on the side of the pad, not the bottom.

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Brian Whiddon is the Managing Editor of WritersWeekly.com and the Operations Manager at BookLocker.com. An Army vet and former police officer, Brian is the author of Blue Lives Matter: The Heart behind the Badge. He's an avid sailor, having lived and worked aboard his 36-foot sailboat, the “Floggin’ Molly” for 9 years after finding her abandoned in a boat yard and re-building her himself. Now, in northern Georgia, when not working on WritersWeekly and BookLocker, he divides his off-time between hiking, hunting, and farming.

 

 

 

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