Torn Toenail

[Montana_Wanderer]

Third day out this bird season and my Griff split her toenail badly. Went to the vet and they had to pull the remainder off, wrapped it up and gave us some anti inflammatory and antibiotics. The vet didn't have a great timeframe for recovery to hunt. 5 days into the recovery and I'm starting to realize it could be a month or more before we can do any real hard hunting/activity.

Have any of you dealt with this in the past? Any insight on timeframe to hunt or tips to help in recovery or protecting it while hunting would be appreciated. Guess I need to get a second dog. Thanks in advance!

She's as poopy pants as I am about not being able to hunt..

 

[homestead]

Any injury involving feet sucks. Take time to let it heal, which being a foot injury means it will probably be awhile. Hope she rebounds quickly.

 

[seeth07]

I've dealt with a badly torn pad before. If we were waterfowl hunting, it would be a no go until fully healed but we were doing upland hunting so we just kept it wrapped and took the wrap off after each session and cleaned it well and put some new Neosporin on it with a fresh wrap. She was limping a bit from pain but wasn't enough to stop her from hunting. I don't think anything could.

 

[Montana_Wanderer]

Any injury involving feet sucks. Take time to let it heal, which being a foot injury means it will probably be awhile. Hope she rebounds quickly.

Thanks homestead. This injury is a good reminder for me to keep her nails as short as possible. Don't want to go through this again!

 

[Montana_Wanderer]

I've dealt with a badly torn pad before. If we were waterfowl hunting, it would be a no go until fully healed but we were doing upland hunting so we just kept it wrapped and took the wrap off after each session and cleaned it well and put some new Neosporin on it with a fresh wrap. She was limping a bit from pain but wasn't enough to stop her from hunting. I don't think anything could.

We will just be upland hunting so that's a plus. Thought we were making progress on healing until she got access to it last night and licked it raw again. Back to square one. Cone of shame will be her new look at all times.

 

[thomas89]

Thanks homestead. This injury is a good reminder for me to keep her nails as short as possible. Don't want to go through this again!

If you don’t already, look into using a Dremel tool for nails. On my dog I have seen way more splits with traditional nail clippers than when I started to Dremel their nails.

Anything that knocks them out mid-season sucks. Take the time to heal up right and sneak in an extra hunt or two down the road! Best of luck to you and the pup!

 

[Montana_Wanderer]

If you don’t already, look into using a Dremel tool for nails. On my dog I have seen way more splits with traditional nail clippers than when I started to Dremel their nails.

Anything that knocks them out mid-season sucks. Take the time to heal up right and sneak in an extra hunt or two down the road! Best of luck to you and the pup!

I just got one a month or so ago! She much prefers the Dremel to clipping, but the lack of trimming enough when she was younger resulted in long quicks. Now I have to slowly get them to recede. I have to blame myself for the split!

This is her first injury that has kept her out. Last two seasons we were lucky. Major bummer. Guess I get to focus more on elk this September than in the past couple.

 

[buckbull]

We will just be upland hunting so that's a plus. Thought we were making progress on healing until she got access to it last night and licked it raw again. Back to square one. Cone of shame will be her new look at all times.

I was just getting ready to ask how you manage to keep the bandages on without a cone. Thought you had some magic going on.

 

[seeth07]

I was just getting ready to ask how you manage to keep the bandages on without a cone. Thought you had some magic going on.

It's not magic, its this stuff. If you do it right, they can't really get it off - no cone needed

 

[TOGIE]

my non hunting dog does this to herself in the yard at least once a year with the ferocity with which she chases balls and would undoubtedly dive into a burning fire pit to get one. two cut pads too.

i don't even bother going to the vet anymore. i just keep an eye on it for infection and things seem fine in a few weeks. obviously no ball throwing in that time frame.

 

[Montana_Wanderer]

I was just getting ready to ask how you manage to keep the bandages on without a cone. Thought you had some magic going on.

Haha! We kept a close eye on her without the cone. At night we did a loose wrap and she completely ignored it for the first few nights. Then she decided last night to pull it off for some reason. Must have had enough of it.

 

[Montana_Wanderer]

It's not magic, its this stuff. If you do it right, they can't really get it off - no cone needed

View attachment 385350

That's good stuff! The hard part is keeping it loose enough to let the wound breath at night and tight enough to keep it on. Now I don't trust her!

 

[Montana_Wanderer]

my non hunting dog does this to herself in the yard at least once a year with the ferocity with which she chases balls and would undoubtedly dive into a burning fire pit to get one. two cut pads too.

i don't even bother going to the vet anymore. i just keep an eye on it for infection and things seem fine in a few weeks. obviously no ball throwing in that time frame.

Good to know! The entire top of the nail is gone and the quick completely exposed. Maybe it just looks a lot worse to us than it really is. Looks damn painful.

 

[TOGIE]

Good to know! The entire top of the nail is gone and the quick completely exposed. Maybe it just looks a lot worse to us than it really is. Looks damn painful.

i think it's incredibly painful. she actually just split the top off a claw like a month and a half ago. honestly we do need to be better about cutting her nails.

first time it happened she basically degloved her dew claw and we went to the vet for that.

but since then i think it's happened like 3 times in some capacity and i really don't do much about it anymore but watch for infection, like i said.

 

[Montana_Wanderer]

i think it's incredibly painful. she actually just split the top off a claw like a month and a half ago. honestly we do need to be better about cutting her nails.

first time it happened she basically degloved her dew claw and we went to the vet for that.

but since then i think it's happened like 3 times in some capacity and i really don't do much about it anymore but watch for infection, like i said.

It amazing what they tolerate. The only reason I knew she was injured was because she lifted her foot briefly a couple times when hunting. When I checked she was covered in blood.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Our old dog has had quite a number of injuries over the years. I think she’s more accident-prone than most. We’ve used boots at times in conjunction with bandages to keep things clean(er) and provide some protection while healing. Ours are the vibram sole/nylon upper style, which seem to breathe ok. I don’t like the solid rubber ones- they seem like a recipe for overheating or foot funk, so I’ve avoided those.

 

[seeth07]

Our old dog has had quite a number of injuries over the years. I think she’s more accident-prone than most. We’ve used boots at times in conjunction with bandages to keep things clean(er) and provide some protection while healing. Ours are the vibram sole/nylon upper style, which seem to breathe ok. I don’t like the solid rubber ones- they seem like a recipe for overheating or foot funk, so I’ve avoided those.

can you link up what you have? We haven't found a boot that seems to work well

 

[brymoore]

Does the dog have trouble walking?

I’d think a week or so would be enough. Definitely not a month. The dog will let you know.

 

[Montana_Wanderer]

Our old dog has had quite a number of injuries over the years. I think she’s more accident-prone than most. We’ve used boots at times in conjunction with bandages to keep things clean(er) and provide some protection while healing. Ours are the vibram sole/nylon upper style, which seem to breathe ok. I don’t like the solid rubber ones- they seem like a recipe for overheating or foot funk, so I’ve avoided those.

Good to know! We have a set of those. May have to order a set a size up to allow for some bandages.

 

[Montana_Wanderer]

Does the dog have trouble walking?

I’d think a week or so would be enough. Definitely not a month. The dog will let you know.

No trouble walking, but just a short run in the yard with bandages and a protective sleeve and it started bleeding again. I imagine any sort of extended exercise right now would set us back.