Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 4/9/2007

Question
My year old boxer mix has radial nerve damage from an accident in December. He started walking and running again last month. He had split a toenail on the damaged leg and after 4 weeks of fighting the infection and his constant chewing at it we had to have the toe removed a few weeks ago. It was finally looking like the foot is normal again & we let him sleep without the collar last night as he hadn't chewed it in weeks. This morning he had chewed the nails of the 3 remaining toes up to the skin and some of the pad. Will those nails grow back? Why does he want to chew now that he can walk again? Thank you for any advise you can give.  

Answer
With injuuries and nerve damage, often these "tingle" and the dog goes after the discomfort. They don't know to stop.  Ask your vet to inject the leg or foot with a long acting local anesthetic like bupivicaine to see if that takes the chewing away.  If it does, then the dog may need high dose narcotic pain relievers.