Help! Silas Split The Skin Between His Nail Pads!

[Guest Althea]

Hey all,

 

Has anyone ever had their grey split the skin between the nail pads? This isn't the nail pad separating from the skin... he has actually split his foot tissue between the two middle claws. Almost as if someone had taken a knife between his toes and cut... It looks awful but isn't bleeding too much. The split is approximately an inch long and very deep (didn't want to stick anything in there to find out how deep.)

 

We were running in our favorite park and he just started limping, but it was subtle and he still seemed in good spirits. Was fine walking home. Rinsed it in water, lots of blood then, but he isn't bleeding through the bandage.

 

I've already bandaged it, so no pics, although I'm not sure that I really could have shown the cut without hurting him more anyhow. Anyone have any experience with a cut like this? Should I emergency vet or could it wait until morning?

 

Thanks GT-ers!

Althea

 

[ahicks51]

Do you mean between the toes, just above the webbing?

 

We had that happen once; I couldn't figure out how a vet could stitch it, so I cleaned it out very carefully with dilute povidone iodine, washed it clean again, and then added just a bit more diluted povidone. Then I padded the space between the knuckles, wrapped it with another piece of tape, put a baby sock over it, and hoped for the best. I think I cleaned it every 8 or 12 hours- I forget now. It took 2-3 days to close up, but once it closed it didn't re-open. Phew.

[Guest Althea]

Yeah, precisely - it's just in the flesh right between his toe pads.... He doesn't seem to be in any pain - just sleeping and making contented sounds. I'm out of iodine, but cleaned it out pretty thoroughly with water. I'll go get iodine and clean it out again in the morning...? Or do you think I should go ahead and reclean tonight?

[Guest Althea]

Any other opinions out there?

[greyhoundlady]

My girl split the webbing on her foot while running like a lunatic. I took her to the regular vet (not emergency). She was given antibiotics and a solution to clean the wound. No stitches. They suggested leaving the bandage off so it could heal. However, since this was just this past winter, I wrapped her foot with a gauze pad and some vet wrap when I took her out because of salt, etc. After a couple of days, I left the bandage off. She has healed fine. I don't think you need an e-vet, but take him to the regular vet when they open, in case you need meds. What you have done so far seems great.

 

Also, if you have any neosporin, you could put that on and wrap the foot until you see the vet.

Edited May 15, 2009 by greyhoundlady

[ahicks51]

I don't even know as a vet could get stitches in there. It's a miserable part of the dog to have to work on. The skin's thin enough to begin with. Coco's was bad enough that I could see bone- and a lot of it. It was only about 1 cm in length, but it would STRETCH. Agh!

 

Healed over just fine- cleaned out and inspected regularly. Even ordinary tap water is antiseptic from the chlorine- provided nothing got in there intentionally, I wouldn't go bonkers trying to find iodine RIGHT NOW.

[Guest GreysAndMoreGreys]

I wouldn't worry about a vet visit unless infection is an issue then maybe just to get some antibiotics.

 

Waiting until morning for a iodine flush/wash would be just fine

[Nichole]

My girl did the same. There was no way to stitch it back, so the vet stitched it to the side - if that makes sense. Now she has no webbing.

[Guest KennelMom]

Dealing with this with Echo right now. I went to the vet just to get some anti-biotics b/c I didn't have the proper kind at home and I didn't like how it was looking. Just rinse with diluted iodine (about 1:100 parts water) several times a day. I just mix it up in a glass an duse a syringe to squirt it between her toes. I wouldn't wrap b/c between the toes is already a warm, damp place which can encourage bacteria growth. Just keep it clean and dry and it should heal fine.

 

IF you go to the vet, do NOT let them talk you into surgery to try to stitch it back together. I can't imagine a vet woudl try to do that...but just a heads up.

Edited May 15, 2009 by KennelMom

[Guest BasilMom]

My Basil did this a few times in the same spot. Soak the foot in a Providine/water solution twice a day. Keep it dry and covered with a baby sock. I suggest a visit to the vet only for antibiotics and they may give you a salve to promote the healing. It's best to keep off the paw as much as possible if you can and no zoomies for a while. It may happen again because the area now torn will lose its elasticity. I did not have it stitched because due to its location I felt it would probably tear again. Good luck.

[Batmom]

My Basil did this a few times in the same spot. Soak the foot in a Providine/water solution twice a day. Keep it dry and covered with a baby sock. I suggest a visit to the vet only for antibiotics and they may give you a salve to promote the healing. It's best to keep off the paw as much as possible if you can and no zoomies for a while. It may happen again because the area now torn will lose its elasticity. I did not have it stitched because due to its location I felt it would probably tear again. Good luck.

 

Above is what I would do.

 

The ointment I've used for things that can't be stitched is SSD (silver sulfadiazine).

[cleptogrey]

emily has split a part of her webbing and had fungus there to boot. we cleaned it and due to the fungus which was scraped off used desitin. it took a little longer than 2 weeks to heal. generally i swear by epson's salts for healing and keeping it dry and clean. my vet does not like antibiotic ointments since they generally retard the healing process.

a tad of cotton to cushion the area after it is wrapped in gauze and then that miraculous vet wrap should do the trick.

[Guest Energy11]

This has also happend to me.

 

I used Trypzyme-V (*available online), which actually HEALS a cut, as it works. I had Staggerlee on Keflex, 500 mg, twice a day for 10 days for possible infection. I used a toddler sock to keep the foot clean, and a bootie over that. I use the high booties sold by The Voyagers.

 

This actually one of the first aid type topics I was going to cover at our seminar at Mt. Hounds.

 

I kept it clean, dressed it twice a day, and it cleared up nicely.

 

Good luck, and let me know if you have any other questions.

 

p.s. if you have a nice vet, he can write you the script for the Keflex, and you usually fill it FREE or for a very reasonable price at some area pharmacies and supermarket pharmacies.

 

 

[Guest Althea]

Thanks for all the info, everyone!

 

Update: I found some iodine last night (my housemates had some) and used it to gently clean and then rebandaged. Silas just went to the vet — when we took off the bandage, the cut had split all the way through his webbing (last night it was just on the bottom) and had stretched almost halfway into his paw. So surgery / stitches are needed... and I was completely prepared to say NO surgery, but when I saw how much the wound had split since last night, I could see how it was necessary. They said they might have to just stitch the two toes together. Aaaargh.

 

So now I have my three-toed Viola and Silas will be down to three-and-a-half. There's a song in there somewhere. Only silver lining is that Silas was due for a teeth cleaning, but the vet said they looked really good. I guess all the brushing has been worthwhile!

 

I'll update when he comes out of surgery....

[Guest agroshong]

Axel has had 1"+ cuts in toe webbing sutured and they have healed well. Vet only needed to use mild sedative and did not need to put him fully under for the procedures.

 

my 100% boy -- always finding a way to visit his first love, his vet.

[Guest GreysAndMoreGreys]

A split web really does not need surgery, but I can see where vets want to do it.

 

Most of the time a small spike (puncture wound) in the webbing area will turn into a full blown split web.

It happens pretty often in the racing kennels.

 

Good thoughts for a fast and easy recovery.

[Guest Spencers_Greyt]

Spencer split his foot like that and it took forever to get it healed. He had it stitiched a number of times but kept resplitting it open. Finally the vet stapled it together and I kept a sock on his foot for a month and that finally worked. He never seemed like he was in pain though.

 

[Guest ishapespace]

Dax has done this not once, but twice. He has two, what I call, detached toes. He split the webbing completely by running in the yard. All we did was flush it with water, put neosporine on it, wrap it for day 1. The next day we removed the bandage, flushed it out and let it go. We checked it a few times a day and cleaned it if necessary, and it healed fine both times. He has no webbing in those spots, but he doesn't seem to care.

[Guest Althea]

Silas really didn't seemed bother by it, but he was limping this morning... I'm still waiting to hear back from the vet, he went into surgery about and hour ago.

 

? for Dax's Human: When Dax did this, did he bleed a ton? I wrapped Silas up in quite a bit of gauze last night, and by morning he had bled right through...

 

? for Spencer's Human: How long has it been since Spencer's injury? I'm afraid Silas will just keep reinjuring this!

 

Thanks for the good thoughts everyone, will update soon.

 

ETA: Individual ?'s

Edited May 15, 2009 by Althea

[Guest KennelMom]

A split web really does not need surgery, but I can see where vets want to do it.

 

Yep...they have bills to pay too!

[Guest Energy11]

Thanks for all the info, everyone!

 

Update: I found some iodine last night (my housemates had some) and used it to gently clean and then rebandaged. Silas just went to the vet — when we took off the bandage, the cut had split all the way through his webbing (last night it was just on the bottom) and had stretched almost halfway into his paw. So surgery / stitches are needed... and I was completely prepared to say NO surgery, but when I saw how much the wound had split since last night, I could see how it was necessary. They said they might have to just stitch the two toes together. Aaaargh.

 

So now I have my three-toed Viola and Silas will be down to three-and-a-half. There's a song in there somewhere. Only silver lining is that Silas was due for a teeth cleaning, but the vet said they looked really good. I guess all the brushing has been worthwhile!

 

I'll update when he comes out of surgery....

WOW! That is wayyyy deeper than I thought, and deeper than my grey's was. Sorry to hear about the surgery, but at least it will be repaired properly! :-)

[macoduck]

Thane did not cut the webbing between his toes. But one night he did cut the deepest part of his foot that you can touch if you put your finger in between the middle of all toes from the underside. In his case he had cut an artery. The E-vet did a horrible job of stitching and bandaging and it had soaked through by morning. Regular vet was unable to do any other stitches because the skin was tearing like tissue paper. He had to put skin glue on it. We did a week of bandage changes and a course of antibiotics.

[Guest Althea]

Ow, poor Thane! That sounds awful...I hear that skin glue stuff is pretty great, but how would you ever get it off of a greyhound's skin?

 

So Silas is home from the surgery, and he's managed to keep down his water and snack. The vet had to stitch the bottom of his foot, up the side of one toe and then put in a few at the top to hold everything together. He's on pain meds and Keflex, and thanks to all the GT'rs who encouraged me to ask for a scrip, I saved $25. (Every dollar counts in this economy...)

 

Now that I know he's going to be ok, I can laugh at the fact that he's still a bit stoned from the anesthesia. He's actually letting the cat sleep next to him - that never happens!

 

Tomorrow we'll have mooshies and ice cream, but I want to make sure that his tummy is settled first.

 

Thanks, GT'ers... you saved the day again!

[Guest Winterwish]

Sending get well wishes out to Silas!

 

wow I'm so glad they didn't stitch the toes together!

 

These wounds can heal well,but the 2 most important things you can do for that foot is 1) to keep him off it until it is completely healed,and 2) keep it clean.

 

Do you have empty IV bags from the vet to use as boots to keep it dry for going out for walks? When taped on for going out for potty walks,the IV bag will also cause Silas to not be able to put that paw down all the way. This is a good thing!

If you don't have any,I would call the vet this morning and ask for a few empty 1 liter IV bags. They are strong and long enough.

When you tape it on,remember to tape around the IV bag,and not on his skin,or fur,so as not to have tape stuck to his fur. Just tape it snugly around the bag. Using these is just for walks tho',or possibly at nite when you can't keep an eye on whether or not he's biting off the dressing and disturbing the healing. These wounds need to heal completely,otherwise they can tend to tear again because of the location and walking,running.

 

You may also want to consider buying a Therapaw at therapaw.com. It could be very beneficial for Silas to have one for that paw.

Good luck and I hope his healing goes well!

Edited May 16, 2009 by Winterwish

[Guest Althea]

Thanks for the suggestions! The vet did give me an IV bag - it's so much easier to use than the therapaw we already have. (We may have gotten the wrong size, but both Silas and Viola hate wearing the therapaw...) He seems to be doing fine this morning, just needs some help getting in and out of bed.

 

Thanks again, everyone!