It sucked. Squamous cell carcinoma, and we didn’t catch it…we thought it was a foot injury, which sadly isn’t common. By the time we worked out what was going on it had metastasized.

If you do own a dark colored standard poodle, inspect their feet regularly for ANY abnormalities and take them to the vet right away if you spot what looks like an infection of the toe or nail bed. Our vet, sadly, hadn’t encountered it before…ours was the only dark colored standard in the practice.