I've got a 5 yr old female with lots of allergies (chronic ear infections, chewing at all feet, runny eyes, & intermittent hot spots) who suddenly started limping a week ago. She refused to put her back right leg down, and even hopped up and down my stairs to avoid using it. She hasn't cried in pain at all when I've massaged up and down from hip to toe on that leg. When food comes around she's even forgotten about it and bounces off her front feet, forcing her back foot to be on the ground, and didn't seem to mind. I thought she might have twisted it or something in play with our other dogs, and since she didn't complain, let it go a couple of days to see what happened. She didn't stop limping, so I took her to the vet. $300 later we got xrays to show no breaks, the vet examined her foot completely, as I've pretty much determined it was one toe that seemed to bother her the most of everything, and the vet found nothing. She said she didn't see any indication of bee stings, cuts, foxtails, infected nailbeds, nothing. She was concerned that the toe felt "firm" and wanted the xrays to see more than anything about a growth- but the xrays showed nothing. She prescribed her painpills and some anti-inflammatories. I hadn't noticed any inflammation in that area, but gave it to her just in case she was a little swollen and this might help the pain stop. That was on Monday. She is still limping and now that toe that I suspected was the problem is really swollen. It's like twice the size it should be, and it's also got some redness in between the digits. Any ideas? I'm planning on calling the vet in the morning, but I'm not really wanting to continue to drug her up without having some clue about what the cause of this might be. Really appreciate any suggestions on what to look for or home remedies to try.
Thanks!

Do you have any honey locust trees around? A puncture wound from one of those thorns is nasty--can't see anything at first because the puncture seals up. Then the area swells, gets hot, fills with puss, etc. etc. Takes antibiotics, sometimes soaking in epsom salts and hot water to get it to drain.

MK

....or a Thornapple tree. They have awful thorns too.

One of the girls had something similar a few months ago. I was sure she was in need of an orth. vet - so there I went - and he found that a pad was infected - maybe a small piece of glass or even a blade of grass or tiny piece of stone - he couldn't find the source. She was on an antibiotic for maybe 10 days and soaking a couple of times a day in epsom salts to keep it open and draining.