Dr. Lera Clone examines Amber, a 10-year-old Lab with an abnormal toe that didn't respond to antibiotics. X-rays revealed bone loss consistent with cancer. Removing the entire toe is the standard treatment, and dogs adapt well after amputation, especially when it's an outer digit like Amber's.
Questions this video answers
10-year-old female (spayed) Labrador.
Oral antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, plus bloodwork to check for abnormalities.
Destruction/loss of the distal phalange (a lytic lesion) of the affected toe, consistent with possible cancer.
Surgical removal of the entire affected toe (digit amputation) as soon as reasonably possible to attempt cure if fully excised.
Chapters
Okay. Hey guys, my name is Dr. Lara. Today I'm here with Amber. Amber is a 10 year old female spayed Labrador. And Amber is coming in. If you guys, Abraham, if you come focusing on this toe right here, this toe right here really obviously is not normal. And what's happening is, you know, sometimes what can happen with dogs when they're having issues with their toes is they can have some sort of nail bud infection going on. And typically if we put them on some antibiotics or some anti inflammatories, that will typically resolve the issue. Sometimes if they get even a deep, deep infection in there, sometimes it can look like that. And so what ended up happening is, as you guys can tell, you know, this is during 2020 COVID 19 since I'm wearing the mask. I had spoken to mom and dad and we decided that we were going to do the anti inflammatories and the antibiotics first. We did some blood work to see if there was anything abnormal there. And I told him, I said if she does not respond to this therapy, then we definitely need to go ahead and do X rays because we want to make sure that there isn't any evidence of cancer or anything like that. And the, you know, two or three weeks went by, no real improvement. So we decided to go ahead and do X rays. And I'm gonna go over the X rays with you guys. So the, this is the toe right here that is in question. And so even if you look at these toes up here, you can see number one, this nail is almost non edge existent on here. And this is actually a bone in here. So a lot of people wonder, oh, you know, when I cut the nail or if I do any amputation, I'm just cutting the nail. No, there's an actual bone in there. So you have 1, 2 and you're supposed to have a third what we call phalange. And that phalange is gone. It's been eaten up by whatever it is that's going on here. And so just so that you can see a different view, here it is again, the toe is pretty much disappearing and it's not something that is a sign of health. This is usually what we call a lytic lesion and an indication of cancer. So normally when we have lesions like this, if we're able to go ahead and get it off in a reasonable amount of time. So ideally you do it as quickly as possible, we would be able to go ahead and get it cured. As long as we get it all out. Okay. Usually this is going to require taking off the whole toe. You guys notice on Amber it's on the outside toe, and that toe does not bear the brunt of the weight. It's usually these two digits right here that will bear the brunt of the weight. My thumb is the Duke Law and again, dogs usually do really, really well. They'll adapt. So so I wouldn't get too concerned about removing that part of the toe. If you guys have any questions about this particular topic, leave it in the comment box. If you found this video helpful, give us a thumbs up. Subscribe, and if you know anybody who might need to see this, share it with them. Thanks for watching. Be safe and hope you guys stay well.
