Big Paw

24 hours later the paw is still swollen but not as swollen as it was,  as it looks much less like a hoof than it did last night, as there are now recognizable, separate  toes and that is very encouraging.

While Rocket strongly suggests that I not touch any of his paws swollen or otherwise, he doesn't have a problem with  flash photography. Through this method I was able to learn that there are no foreign objects embedded in the paw or between the paw pads, that there is no wound, it is clean and dry but does appear to be slightly more red than  his un-swollen paws. There is no signs of infection, although his claws are much too long on that paw.  On inspection of the pictures, I may have found a spot that might be a sting, its  a small pinkish area on the top of the paw near the end of a toe and the swelling does seem expand around it. Or its just a spot left over from an old injury, dogs don't  for the most part wear shoes and their feet get beat up just from general dog-being.

He is weight bearing on all four feet, he is not guarding or pulling up, he is eating and drinking as normal and playing with his toys - using the swollen paw interchangeably with the other front paw as a tool, and  merrily chasing the cat.

 I have been giving him Benadryl and the swelling is slowly decreasing.  I'm not quite ready to call the vet, and then the question is, which vet? The old stand by vet? The office is a bitch to get to, their hours suck and they charge too much - but they are excellent vets and I would trust to get it taken care of. Choice two is the surgeon that saw Daisy, not close by, but easier to get to and their hours are rock star, again, that office is never cutting one of my animals ever, but they are good meat-and-potatoes vets and they certainly could be trusted to deal with a minor injury,  choice three is the vet that just fixed him, close by, easy to get to , good enough hours and I would trust them for a minor injury.

Hopefully, this will resolve and I won't have to go into an over thinking spiral about this.