I was at a Schnauzer dog group meetup over the weekend and it was a little surprising to meet Giant Schnauzer owners who had no idea what toe cancer is.
And then before we left, I'm pretty sure I spotted toe cancer on another owner's dog. I urged them to get it checked immediately because if you don't amputate it's a death sentence as it will metastasize.
There's not a whole lot you can do about it, it's a type of skin cancer that seems prevalent in black coated dogs that have a blue-ish tint to their skin. The silver and black or pepper-and-salt Giants don't have it.
feld
in reply to feld • • •I'm also especially on edge right now because my last giant had a toe cancer and my current dog Betty had a nail break badly and the entire nail had to be cut off near the base and getting this healed is a pain in the ass as it does bleed a lot (edit: not really "bleed".. more like a scab that just keeps getting disturbed, but cutting a nail back that far is going to be problematic).
I'm checking it constantly for any strange signs that there could be tumor growth that was misdiagnosed, as a tumor could potentially weaken the nail and cause this. Previous dog had 3 biopsies before they finally confirmed it even though I was screaming TOE CANCER at them the whole time.
HOWEVER
her nail issue started with the side getting badly chipped and then the structure was just weakened which doesn't track with a tumor inside or at the base. But I can't stop thinking the bad thoughts, ya know?