The Tale of the Broken Toe

It has been 12 months and 8 days since my dog broke her toe falling up the stairs.  She got her coordination from watching me I guess.

It has been 11 months since her toe was amputated.

Bet you weren’t expecting that, huh?  Neither was I.  I initially took her to a 24/7 emergency vet because, of course, she broke it a day before Labor Day.

It was strange, the only thing that clued me into her being in pain was the limping.  She didn’t whine, she didn’t stop running around, she didn’t stop eating, and her toe was barely swollen.

Anyway, we get to the vet and they have to put her under in order to take an x-ray of her toe.  Six hours later, they bring me and my sister into a room and show us the x-ray.  Basically, the bone holding her pinky nail snapped right at the middle.  Their suggested healing plan was to put her in a cast for four weeks, check her over, x-ray again, and take it from there.  I agreed because that seemed like a normal plan.  I had never had a dog that broke anything before, let alone a toe.

So, after a lot of miscommunication between vets, two broken casts, a total of 23 hours in the emergency vet waiting room between those three visits, she finally gets her x-ray.  I had to leave her at my vet through the day while I went to work.  I got a call around 4pm.

“Her toe hasn’t healed at all.  I believe the best plan of action is amputation.”

I didn’t really hear much else.  You know that static sound from the tv when it isn’t actually working or you are on the wrong input channel?  That was covering up the muffled words over the phone from the vet.  There was another option of cutting her open and basically reconstructing her toe but that only possibly could work.

My dog had to get her toe cut off.

Like, it wouldn’t be there anymore.  Because she fell up the stairs.  My dog is ungraceful and she gets a toe removed as a consequence.

Now, looking back, I have no idea why I was so worried.  Its not like the dogs at doggie daycare were going to make fun of her or that she would have a weird looking foot.  You can barely tell.  It was an unnecessary toe that doesn’t affect her balance at all.

And now it’s a funny story to tell.  My dog had her toe amputated all because she can’t walk up the stairs correctly.  Scooby actually had the workers at daycare tricked because she would pick up the “injured” foot to get more attention.  That worked for a whole month after she returned.

So, two weeks after the surgery, Scooby was back to normal.  No cast, no stitches, and one less toe.

Honestly, the biggest thing I have learned from this is that 1: I am a crazy dog mom that doesn’t pay attention to the vet costs, and 2: from the very beginning, always ask possible outcomes.  She was in pain for longer than necessary (1 month and 19 days) and if I would have known it was a possibility that she would get it amputated in the first place, I may have just gone with that.