Berry's Hurt Paw

Oh the Humiliation!

One morning last week I noticed Berry limping a bit when he came in from his morning romp through the garden..I thought he got a sliver or a thorn stuck in his paw and planned to check his on him after he ate his breakfast kibble. Well, I got busy and forgot to check. I noticed him limping when we went on a walk a few hours later...his toes were all red and swollen! I called the vet and got him in an hour later. The vet couldn't tell what was wrong, it could be a sting (not to likely in January) or a sliver that got infected...he got his paw bandaged, a prescription for pain medication and antibiotics; I got instructions to keep his bandage on and DRY for 3 days!

Sunbathing On The Couch Helps A Little

After struggling with wrapping Berry's paw in a bag every time he needed to go outside, and monitoring him to keep him from chewing the bandage off for 3 days, we were excited to remove the bandage, our excitement quickly turned to disappointment when we saw the toe was still red and swollen (but not as bad as before). We had a trip to the beach planned and was not looking forward to spending more time taking care of the bandage; but we went back to the vet and got it re-bandaged. By now Berry was pretty good about not chewing on it so I decided to make a sock-like cover to protect the bandage and let him go without the plastic collar during the day.

After two days at the beach I was tired of spending so much time taking plastic bags on and off of the poor guys foot...so we decided to removed the bandage and just have him wear one of the socks wrapped in bandage tape... well we found is toe to be much improved, and we found a stinger! His foot was all better by the next morning, what a relief.

I will be sure to check potential injuries out right away from here on out. If I had seen his paw before it was completely swollen I may have seen the stinger and avoided a couple of trips to the vet and a week of bandages! Here is a link to dog and bee sting information. I always carry small Benedryl tablets with me since Berry love to catch bees, he has been stung several times, this however is the first sting he has gotten in the middle of winter.