Infected foot

[Popgun]

My cocker started limping I checked his foot out could find nothing wrong next morning the leg and foot were swolen so off to the Vets he cut the foot between the toes and drained it then put the Cocker on a drip with antibiotics I picked the dog up that evening his foot and leg were nearly back to normal, the Vet gave me a course of antibiotics for the dog after which he was back to his normal self. 2 weeks on he was limping again so back to the Vets he looked him over and said the dog has an infected toe joint and antibiotics are not good in joints it will probably re infect the foot and leg so he wants to amputate the toe, the Cocker works on a large commercial shoot doing 40-50 200-400 bird days plus a lot of rough shooting with me, will he still be able to do a hard days work with out the toe?

thanks for your time Pat.

 

[fenboy]

The best person to answer that would be the vet , but my guess is that he will be just fine once healed.

[WGD]

Should be fine, their toes are pretty important to them but I have seen a spaniel working with 3 legs never mind 3 toes so I wouldn't expect it to hinder him too much.

[washerboy]

Will be fine,seen coursing greyhounds with toes missing.

[pontbeck]

Have the op as the alternative is having a lame dog that you can't work anyway

[lee-kinsman]

I suppose it depends how far up the leg he amputates the toe.

[pontbeck]

A toe`s a toe.

How far up the leg !!!

[tiny tim]

get a second opinion from a greyhound vet that sees toe injuries all the time....ring local dog track to find one....if the worst comes to the worst and the toe needs to come off its not the end of the world and the dog will work fine .I,ve had running dogs which have had toes off and it didn't affect them at all