fourleg.com

I was with my own dog at an agility camp this past weekend. It was intense training for international courses for those who want to try out for world teams. Yesterday, an acquaintance of mine was running her 3 year old male Sheltie through a tunnel and he came out of the tunnel lame. I did not see it so don’t know if he was banking at high speed ( probably though!!)

He was visibly limping on his RF and painful on palpation. I felt crepitus and urged her to get him radiographed today.

She sent me this image, sorry it is gigantic, not in JPEG form.

I see something in the middle phalanx of P5 but not sure how to define it… I also thought that digit looked slightly more distracted laterally than the same on the LF. I thought there could be a soft tissue injury as well. I’m guessing he caught his toe on one of the ribs of the tunnel.

Her veterinarian told her 8 weeks of cage rest with leash walking only. I don’t usually splint and apparently her vet doesn’t either!

Seems excessive to me but I wanted some input from the group on impressions and treatment plan. Thanks- She is of course very worried…As she was sobbing yesterday, I told her it was not a career ending injury and I would try to help!

She wants to try out the first weekend in December for the European Open team..

Thanks again

Carole Nicholson DVM, CCRT, CVSMT

I can't figure out how to enlarge this on my computer, but it looks like P1 of the R 5th digit may be fractured and the distal segment is displaced laterally. Or maybe that is just the summation of pad over the digit making it look fractured.
Diane

Hey Carole,

Well, I'm not an x-ray expert...

So I would resort back to the physical assessment.
Any pain to stress test the joints (MCL, LCL) of any / all IP joints?
Any pain on palpation of sesamoids?
Any pain to squeeze along the phalanxes?
Any pain to fully flex or fully extend the digits?

I would rely on clinical findings... not this x-ray.

My 2 cents!

Laurie

I can't enlarge radiograph so can't comment too much on it, except that the palmer pad is creating a mach effect on the 5th digit that might be what you are seeing. Once again, I will echo what LEH said above. Go over the foot mm by mm until you localize the source of crepitus a/o pain.

In broad strokes, I divide these digits into those with or without instability. Rest and restriction is usually good to resolve the latter, the former needs individual treatment depending on exactly what you diagnose.