Dog toe xray.

Dr. Marie replied:

Thanks for sending the xray of your dog's foot. This really helps me to answer your question.

I've cropped the photo and circled the area that we are worried about:



I am guessing that this actually has nothing to do with Cooper's previous injury to that toe.

What we are seeing on this xray is that the last bone on the toe that is circled is extremely distorted when you compare it to the other toes. There are two things that can cause an xray that looks like this. A bone infection is possible. In my experience the more common reason for a toe to look like this is a bone cancer. The most common type of bone cancer that can look like this is something called a squamous cell carcinoma.

The good news is that if this is a squamous cell carcinoma, it usually can be cured by having your vet surgically removing the toe. Occasionally when a dog has this problem then we will see it appear in another toe, but most of the time doing surgery cures the problem.

When I see dogs with a bone tumor they will often have a swollen toe, and yes, the nail can be a different color than the rest. Often that nail is longer than the rest.

Unfortunately, the only way to distinguish an infection from a tumor is to send the bone tissue away for a pathologist to analyze it. This means that surgery would be necessary to get a diagnosis.

I think that it is a reasonable plan to try antibiotics and see what happens. Your vet will likely want to take another xray once the antibiotics are done. If there are no obvious changes though they will probably recommend surgery.

I hope things go ok!

Dr. Marie.


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