Chronic Torn Web - Not Edge Of Web, But Middle Of The Paw

[Guest chaoran22]

since june, my boy has had these weird tears (see pictures below) in both his back paws. one's better than the other. the mystery is, no one can figure out how he got them or how to make them better. they're in the middle of his webs, not at the edge - which is where i would expect a tear to occur normally. i don't think he's stepped in anything sharp - plus, it's highly unlikely that he would get cuts on both back paws and not just one so i don' t think he was cut by anything.

 

he didn't have these the first 2 years i've had him and now they won't heal. they're not infected, never inflamed, no pus, really clean wounds, but the problem is, i'll confine him to simple walks around the block until they heal, but the second he starts running again, they burst open as if they had never healed. and i will make sure they are completely healed until you can barely see the scar, and wait an extra week beyond that, and they still burst open as soon as he takes one sprint off leash. it takes about a week to two weeks for them to heal completely.

 

walks don't seem to aggravate it - slow jogging also seems to be fine. i also keep his nails short so by filing them smooth with the dremel down to almost the quick so that shouldn't be the problem. his nails don't touch the ground when he stands.

 

i'm really worried and frustrated. i've tried wrapping and using new skin and what seems to work best is just to leave it alone and not let him run. my vet and i are both at a loss about this, she's going to post on her greyhound vet board and ask around but i thought i'd ask around here too.

 

on the sort of bright side - these cuts don't bother him at all unless i'm touching or poking them.

 

they're both next to the toes that face the inside of his paws if that makes sense - so they're in mirror image locations on the two paws.

 

 

the second picture isn't that great - i didn't notice there was a tuft of toe fur covering the view of the cut so i'll just describe it - it's basically just a little round black scab - it's not a cut like in the first picture where you can see the flesh cut in half, in the second picture, it's more like a bad scrape but even this one opens up when he runs even though it's not as bad as the other paw.

 

 

so as you can all see, this is not something he can just live with, especially on the one paw where the flesh is split open. also, as you can see, the location of the wounds are weird, they're right in the middle of his paw, not at the edge of the webbing where it makes sense that a tear could happen from running fast. these just don't seem to make much sense at all.

 

could it be his conformation and the way he runs that causes this to happen? has anyone seen cuts like these before? why do they keep opening back up even after they're healed completely? does anyone have any idea??? any ideas on how to heal these cuts once and for all would be greatly appreciated. he's had these since june - they just keep opening back up. he loves to sprint like crazy on the beach and also loves lure coursing so it would be really really sad if he couldn't run fast anymore because of this.

Edited October 17, 2007 by chaoran22

[sacha]

Egon had a tear like that in his front foot. It would not heal, we tried saline flushes, creams, etc. We ended up having it stitched up. Egon was on bed rest.....no walks, no zoomies nothing. It healed up and hasn't happened since.

I hope you get some answers, poor pup!

[Guest needlenoselover]

Poor baby! I hope your vet gets some answers for you soon.

[3DogNite]

One of my boys did that all summer about 5 summers ago. His toes have healed apart so the webbing just isn't there anymore, he now has individual toes. It did take a long time to heal, I just kept it clean and made a light weight bootie for him to wear. He did not have stitches and they have not bothered him since.

 

good luck!

[Greylover97]

No point in stitching it together because it won't hold. When Carolina tore the webbing in between her toes they just stitched the holes closed, so now two of her toes are separated.

 

The only thing I can suggest are booties. Once he is healed up the booties are padded and provide extra protection when he is allowed to run again.

[Guest chaoran22]

The problem with his paws though is different from most of the web injuries described - his toes are not separated, the web is not torn at the front, the web is entirely intact except for that it has a cut in the middle of it. if you look closely at the pictures, you can see that they're weird tears in the middle of the web. so in other words, his toes are still held together perfectly by the web - which makes the injury even odder because one would think that the most pressure put on his web when he runs would be at the front and the web would tear completely but the front of the web is perfectly intact - not even scratched up. i have heard that with a torn web, they can just stitch the toes up separately and the dog is fine but that's a different injury than my dog has. does anyone have experience with a cut, but not torn web? or does anyone have experience with any kind of wound that won't stay healed even after it's healed completely?

Edited October 17, 2007 by chaoran22

[Guest Winterwish]

maybe this might help, frequent irrigating with a syringe with water or saline,and keeping it exceptionally clean-- hard to do on the bottom of the paw tho'. Also,soaking the paw in warm water and epsom salts,or warm soaks with a washclothe soaked in the epsom salt solution.

In addition,it well worth investing in buying Thera-paws to protect the paw all the time. The thing with the thera paws is that they're expensive in that the price is for only one boot,but it's well worth it.

 

Good luck and I hope your grey's paw is on the way to healing soon.

 

Thera-paws for injured paw

Edited October 17, 2007 by Winterwish

[Xan]

Is there a possibility that he's got something else going on, like a vitamin deficiency that might make it harder for him to heal up once and for all? Just a thought ... Poor guy!

[Guest chaoran22]

healing isn't a problem - it heals very quickly (although i will try saline rinse since that'll probably help) - the problem is really that it opens back up as soon as he sprints (even after the scab has been gone for a long time and you can barely see the scar tissue). would therapaws restrict his toe movement? because it's not the fact that his foot is coming into contact with things, it's more the fact of just the movement of his foot which causes this to open up so covering it up wouldn't help unless it also kept his toes from moving so much. i'll look into it. it's

 

just all kind of strange because one would think there isn't much pressure put on the web in the middle of his paw, i would imagine that most of the pressure comes to the part of the web that is stretched the most between the toes - which would be the front part of the web but that part is perfectly fine on his paws. walks and slow jogs don't seem to impede the healing at all - it's just those full out greyhound sprints that opens the wound right back up.

 

maybe he has a deficiency? any ideas on what to test for? i just can't imagine what would cause a perfectly healed wound to open back up constantly. isn't scar tissue actually supposed to be stronger once it's healed?

 

also - is there a way to wrap his foot so that he doesn't put so much pressure on his web when he sprints? that might keep it from opening it up and i wouldn't mind doing it but i don't want to wrap his toes in a way that would make it unsafe for him to sprint by throwing him off balance or anything like that. but it is something i've given thought to as a long term solution if we can't find a way to keep it from opening up. those of you who wrap your dogs' legs when they lure course, can you safely wrap the feet as well?

[Batmom]

Longshot, but it might be worthwhile NOT wrapping his foot, or at least not wrapping it so as to restrict it in any way (baby sock would be OK). When he's got the sore spot, soak in Epsom salts solution a couple times a day; when it's healed over, rub in Bag Balm once or twice a day -- spread his toes out and massage in gently all over the bottom of his pad. Scar tissue is less flexible, and it could be it's healing up tight, just where his foot wants to flex instead.

 

[Guest chaoran22]

i'm going to get bag balm today and see if helps with minimizing the scar because i think you might have hit the nail on the head with the scar tissue being too stiff and causing the tear to happen again and again. are there other products i might try that minimize or soften scar tissue?

[Guest Greensleeves]

Yup, yup, yup--what Batmom said! Make sure after it's healed that you keep the skin very well moisturized. Dry skin is less flexible and more prone to injury (ever get those chronic split cuticles in the winter? ).

 

You might also think about using Vitamin E on it, even after it's healed, to promote the growth of healthy skin (and the Vit E oil is a good moisturizer, too).

 

Good luck! We had an ear injury here that wouldn't heal for something lik 19 weeks--so I know what you're going through.

Edited October 17, 2007 by Greensleeves

[tbhounds]

Seems to me that he's injuring himself while doing zoomies outside. Do you have raised tree roots or pine cones in the yard that he's stepping on? Or, do you think that he's spiking himself with his backfoot when he's running?

[Guest chaoran22]

i don't think he's injuring himself while doing zoomies by stepping on stuff because this happens in sand and grass, anywhere. and it's the same spot every time so that's unlikely. that might be how it got started, but now it's just the same wound opening back up. also it's his back feet so he's not spiking himself. But he does spike himself in his front legs sometimes with his back feet though sometimes i think greys were bred to be faster than their bodies can handle. kind of like how bulldogs were bred with such big heads that they can't give birth without human help.