Corns!

[lothianjavert]

I hate corns. Absolutely hate them. How can something so small and insignificant cause so much damned trouble??!!!

 

Sully has had a corn on his front foot for about a year now. It's been hulled out repeatedly, but the new vet refuses to do it (the vet's office w/ the constantly rotating vets, the ones I like never stay. ) The young vet who left hadn't heard about hulling, but when I printed out the article, he gave it a try and it really helped. So periodically I'd have Sully's corn hulled. Now that the young vet is gone (he's chosen to specialize in orthopedics), the other one (that I do not like) refuses to do it. He's insisting on corn removal surgery or toe amputation, which I'm not gung-ho on, since with the former the corns come back, and I"m not ready to take off the whole toe yet! I hate that he infers that I am a bad/neglectful owner for refusing the surgery.

 

I've tried duct tape, it didn't work. I have considered trying to hull it, but would rather a vet do it. It does give him relief. (and the hulling process doesn't seem to bother him) I just want the damned thing to go away. I hate seeing him limp. He -HATES- the booties, and can get them off, and is generally determined to. ARGh.

 

Any other suggestions in dealing with this corn??

 

Here's the big corn on the front left paw: (it's as hard as a rock, I can see why it would hurt! When the vet hulled it the first time, he handed me the corn, and it was like a pebble. OUCH!)

 

 

Another shot. You can see the edges pretty well, and it's easy to feel the difference in the corn tissue vs. the surrounding soft pad.

 

 

Unfortunately, he's developing a second corn on his hind foot. It's much smaller, but still, this just sucks!!

Does anyone know of a decent vet in my area? (northeastern corner of MD?) Baltimore is too far-- the soonest I could get down there after work would be nearly 8 p.m. I feel weird calling up vets or just randomly walking in and asking questions. I know I'm not likely to find a grey savvy vet, but a good vet that's willing to try new things or learn would be awesome.

 

 

 

[Burpdog]

I used to pop some of Rob Roy's off with my finger nail Also dremel them.

[Guest KateWantsaGrey]

I used to pop some of Rob Roy's off with my finger nail Also dremel them.

 

 

oh man... i need to get out of this thread... haha

[Rickiesmom]

Any other vet options?

[Guest alannamac]

Bandit gets these over and over. I just push down on the outer perimeter of the corn with my fingernail in a circular pattern all around the circumference, and after several times of doing this, the thing comes out on its own! (like a little black jelly bean, it's really weird) and if you leave them long enough, they do it by themselves. He had one on his back paw that didn't seem to be bothering him, so I left it alone, and lo and behold after 2yrs, it came out on its own. I thought he had something stuck to his foot, and it turned out to be the corn, halfway out and bent!

At any rate, just by worrying the thing over and over with your fingernail (gently without breaking the skin), you can actually extrude the thing yourself.

[jamngrey]

I used to pop some of Rob Roy's off with my finger nail Also dremel them.

pretty much what I do with Cassies 2. then file the area around to smooth out

[galgomum]

I feel your pain, my Tom has three on his front paws.

[lothianjavert]

It's really deep, so working it off w/ a fingernail won't happen. The dremel is a good idea, I may have to get one. (I have a Foredom tool, but that's too big... it's like a dremel on major steroids )

 

I am looking for a new vet. There actually are only a few w/in reasonable driving distance.

[inugrey]

How frustrating to have a vet who won't help you out! What about a vet in b-more that is open on a Saturday?

Also, while you are searching check out kennelmom's website. She had success with a combo of techniques on Casino's corns.

[romansperson]

There's nothing wrong with calling the vets in your area to see if they'd be willing to do the hulling thing.

 

We have the same problem - revolving door at the vets' office we use. Our favorite vet is in Charlotte now and I've thought if we needed to we could drive Pumpkin down there! Currently, some are comfortable with doing it and some are not. Pumpkin's got one corn that is different, too, which complicates things. It seems to have its own blood supply and does hurt if you try to manipulate it, so that one only gets done if she needs to be asleep for something else. The other one, if it grows out enough, can be pulled out just as others have already mentioned. So weird - doesn't hurt her at all.

 

In between vet visits we use the dremel - I just do the corns while I am doing her nails.

[Guest CBDTherapyDogs]

all the suggestions here on removing them do work. I've got an old stakes racer here who has them horribly. Her front left paw has them terribly on ALL four pads, and her remaining feet have at least one (one paw has two). I worry them out, then once they're out, I dremmel the area around it. I have foudn that for my Elsa-belle that once I remove it, dremmel it, then put the duct tape on it, it comes back a bit later than with out. it does come back... just not as soon if that makes more sense.

 

Might take two people though. One to hold the hound, the other to pluck it out.

[turbotaina]

Hey Rachael,

 

I feel your pain. Hope you can find a more receptive vet, but in the meantime, use either Abreva or even just vaseline to soften the pads. You may be able to eventually just pop it out after the pads have softened up. Dr. K. hulled Turbo's twice, the third time it fell out on its own (seriously, I looked at his toe and there was a tiny hole there) and the last time the sucker grew back, I just worked it out with my fingernail when he had wet feet. Which is another route you can take - do an epsom soak and then work it.

 

I'm happy to report that it has not yet grown back - it takes longer and longer each time it's removed. He hasn't had to take tramadol or wear therapaws in probably two months now (a record for him)!

 

I so hate corns!!!!!

Edited December 10, 2007 by turbotaina

[Guest MnMDogs]

Corns really stink. Mork has one on each of 3 paws. About 6 weeks ago, we had them hulled, and he was in a lot of pain for several days after since I think she went too deep. He was wonderfully corn-free and mobile up until about a week ago when we noticed the left front, and right back had returned. Instead of putting him through anything too invasive I did an espom salt "soak" as Meredith mentioned above.

 

Like Sully's, Mork's front corns were very very deep, and required a lot of time in the epsom salts to effectively loosen them. I took a suggestion from Finnsliz and soaked a couple paper towels in the salt solution, placed that in a baggie around his foot (closed the top around his leg with tape) and then put a therapaw bootie on over that for at least 2 hours. He hates it, but tolerates it for long enough. After that, I can just pull them out. I can't do that without the soak, however.

 

Hope you find something that works.