Could Be A Corn?

[Guest amystrass]

Hi all,

 

I've been reading all the messages here about corns, visited the Grassmere site, and have learned a lot! I THINK that our Stella (adopted in June) has a corn, but I'm not sure. She has many of the symptoms... she's limpy, she limps worse on bumpy asphalt, she does much better with the Thera-Paw, etc. Her limping seems to improve some days and then gets worse again. We had X-rays done, and they showed a little swelling and a very tiny black dot in her paw that the vet thinks could be a foreign body, although I don't think he's convinced of that. Our vets do see several greyhounds but don't know too much about corns, I don't think. When they squeezed her toe pad, the small circular "wound" that she has oozed a little, which was interesting. That led the vet to think it could be a plantar wart, which is the same as a corn, right?

 

The vet wants to do exploratory surgery on her toe, and in the meantime, he suggested we try a small patch of duct tape. We've been doing that for about a week, and Stella's limp is actually better, although it's still there. I worry that it hurts her when we pull off the duct tape.

 

We really want to avoid surgery and are thinking about trying Kerasolv. I know hulling is supposed to be great, but here's my question: what does a corn look like? Should it be raised? Stella doesn't have anything raised or bumpy on her toe, just a small circular... area, which oozed when squeezed. How could something like that be hulled? Is the corn "inside" her toe and just hasn't come out yet? She's been limping for quite awhile.

 

Any help or insight would be much appreciated... thank you!

[macoduck]

Amy, do a search in the Health and Medical forum here on Gt and you should easily find some pictures and stories of corns.

 

And welcome to GT!

[CaliforniaGreys]

I've never known a corn to ooze, but I have limited experience with them. But there are quite a few pictures here so you may want to take a look as the above poster suggested and compare it to what you're seeing. And congratulations on adopting Stella!

[Guest MAXNAV]

Just wondering.........why would a vet want to do exploratory surgery on a toe? Has he done an x-ray or further testing? There's no way I'd put my guy under for exploratory surgery without checking this out further.

[JenniferS]

Quiet Man's corn started out just like what you described, and that was a year ago, He had an intermittent limp on pavement, tiny black dot, etc. Mt vet also thought a foreign object had gotten in there (he doesn't have experience with corns). A year later it's worse than ever, and the only thing that seems to help is the Therapaw which has been a godsend. If it is a corn, it will grow slowly and come to the surface, you can pick it out, hull it out, pumice it down, put duct tape on it to soften it, but nothing seems to make it go away forever I'm afraid

[Guest MomofSweetPotatoes]

Corns...yuck!

 

Yardman is currently growing 4 of them, all on his back feet. He has 1 on his front foot that grows on the topside of his pad towards his toenail, doesn't affect him in the least

 

If it is oozing, I too would wonder if he has a foreign body in there, I think sometimes it's called a sandwart. Removing the corn will probably only make it come back. By the time recovery is done, the corn will start to resurface. We tried that with Gus. Poor guy had 3 months of relief, just wasnt worth it.

 

Keep your eyes' peeled on that area. Amputating the toe is an option, however, consider this: Once that toe is gone, if the corn comes back on another toe, they'll have 1 less toe to balance on.

[Guest amystrass]

Hi everyone, thanks for the replies! My husband and I feel so confused about what to do. We've been applying the duct tape, but now I wonder if it's hurting her... when it was peeled off yesterday, there was a little blood and oozing. That doesn't sound "corn-like" to me.

 

When we adopted Stella back in June, her vet report did say she'd had a recent laceration on the same paw, but we could never tell where exactly it had been. I suppose a foreign body could have gotten into her toe at that point. Apparently a corn can form in reaction to such a thing happening. And there was that tiny black dot on the X-ray...

 

We just really don't know whether to do the exploratory surgery, or what else to try. It's terrible to see her limping so much, and Deramaxx hasn't helped her. I'm considering calling a very greyhound-savvy vet a few miles away and asking to get a second opinion. Maybe she can tell us definitively if this is a corn, in which case we won't do surgery.

[Guest AzLazyHounds]

I think a second opinion with a trusted GH vet is definately a good idea.

 

I know duct tape is used to remove warts... and softens corns... but if your baby still has soft racer feet, the duct tape may be too hard on her.

[Batmom]

I would ditch the duct tape. If you've got oozing, I'd suspect a foreign body.

 

It is NOT true that corns can't go away forever, or at least for a long time. Zema had her big corn hulled (using the Grassmere procedure) every 3 weeks for months. Then, when she was under for a dental, the vet hulled the corn one more time and treated the hulled surface very briefly/lightly with his surgical laser. NO more corn for 9 months.

 

Around the 9 month point, she developed 2 small corns -- one on the original toe, one on the toe next to it. Those were hulled using the Grassmere procedure. No further corns have developed yet.

[JenniferS]

Even if you don't think it's a corn, the Therapaw should help with the limping and help to keep it cleaner on walks.

[Guest amystrass]

The TheraPaw has definitely been great! We use it every time we go outside. Today her limp is so bad that even the TheraPaw isn't helping much. But usually, it's extremely helpful for her.

[Rickiesmom]

Another vote for a second opinion at a GH-savvy vet. Please let us know when the appointment is, and in due course, how it turns out.

[Guest MomofSweetPotatoes]

If she's still limping with the therapaw, time to get it re-evaluated. If there's not a foreign body in that toe, Re-xray the whole leg and shoulder to confirm that it's nothing else.

[Guest amystrass]

I have a recommendation for a local grey-savvy vet and will let you all know how it goes. It would be wonderful if it wasn't a corn!

 

Our first greyhound died of osteosarcoma in the front right shoulder. But I don't think we're dealing with that here. Stella is only 4, and she's holding her paw off the ground, which typically signals a paw problem, not something higher up in the leg (or so we've been told).

 

Thanks for all your help! We just can't wait to get a firm diagnosis of what's hurting our poor girl.

[Guest fruitypebbles]

I have a recommendation for a local grey-savvy vet and will let you all know how it goes. It would be wonderful if it wasn't a corn!

 

Our first greyhound died of osteosarcoma in the front right shoulder. But I don't think we're dealing with that here. Stella is only 4, and she's holding her paw off the ground, which typically signals a paw problem, not something higher up in the leg (or so we've been told).

 

Thanks for all your help! We just can't wait to get a firm diagnosis of what's hurting our poor girl.

 

If the dog is holding a paw off the ground, it means they don't want to bear weight on it. Lost a dog to osteo too, the symptoms: holding the paw off the ground and limping when walking.

[Guest amystrass]

fruitypebbles, I'm sorry you went through that, too. I should have mentioned that Stella also licks the toe where we think there's a problem. So I truly don't think we're dealing with osteo here. But of course, we need to be open to testing everything!

[Guest amystrass]

I wanted to share an update: Stella is indeed a corndog! The greyhound-specialist vet confirmed it. She spayed and examined Stella back in May, before we adopted her, and told us that she'd seen two corns then (somehow this wasn't relayed to us when we adopted her). One of those corns is gone now, interestingly.

 

This vet has greyhounds of her own with corns. In her opinion, surgery isn't a good option, nor are Kerasolv or dremeling... she says they can irritate the paw pad. I forgot to bring up hulling with her. Stella's corn is below the surface, anyway, so not sure she's a candidate for that. You can see it, but when you touch her paw pad, there's no raised bump.

 

The vet recommended the TheraPaw (which we already use), keeping her nails clipped to a good length, and a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement, as well as an anti-inflammatory like Deramaxx when needed for pain. She said that Stella will sometimes be in pain according to the corn's life cycle, as it starts to grow. The pain will diminish as the corn extrudes. It could come back, or it might not. The only thing that stumped her a bit was the oozing... she hadn't heard of that with a corn before.

 

Stella was in a LOT of pain a few weeks ago but now has pretty much no limp at all. So we'll keep monitoring her to see what happens. It's just such a relief to have a firm diagnosis--and to have avoided exploratory surgery!