A thorny issue of paw pain

DAVE, the yellow labrador, limped into my consulting room this week.

His problem was clear as he couldn’t put his right front foot to the ground.

His owner said: “He’s been lame since last weekend. I can’t find anything wrong so I thought it was time to bring him in.”

I knew this would be an interesting case. I felt each pad and also the areas between his toes.

There was a painful, firm area in one of the spaces. Dogs can’t tell us vets which bit hurts, so we have to work out the sore bit by trying to gain some sort of reaction.

Sutures

Luckily for me, the source of the pain was obvious and I knew I needed to explore further under anaesthetic.

Half-an-hour later, Dave was asleep in theatre and I was cutting over the painful nobble. After some exploring, a centimetre-long black thorn shot out of the incision I had made.

Four sutures later, Dave was cured of his sore foot. It was a painful problem with a simple cure and it was pleasing to see him walking out with his owner – who was also called Dave.