Guest Miss_Chris428 Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Hello all! I'm new to this forum and new to being a Greyhound Mum (3 weeks in). I adopted my 2 year old retired racer from a local Greyhound Rescue League a few weeks ago and she's settling in to her new home and life perfectly. She even gets along with my cats! When we were going through the adoption process, I noticed that she has some pretty bad scars on the backs of her legs, and some lesser ones spread across her body (Mostly on pressure points. The vet thinks these are from laying down and the hair rubbed off). My vet doesn't know what might have caused the bad scars, but he says that it's not Balding Thigh Syndrome (although she does have a mild case of that on her fanny, stomach, chest, and neck). I've seen pics of other Greys online and noticed similar scars on them. Does anyone know what may have caused this? Thanks, Christina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest redreed Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 I'm not positive, but my guess would be that some of them at least are from fights when they were in with their brothers and sisters. Spyder was a crazy boy and loved to play rough with all other dogs. I'm not positive, but my guess would be that some of them at least are from fights when they were in with their brothers and sisters. Spyder was a crazy boy and loved to play rough with all other dogs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trihounds Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Welcome to GT and cograts on your new addition! Most of the time, the scars are from life on the farm as pups or jostles during turn out at the kennels. You probably noticed greyhound skin is tissue paper thin, and you should know it tears very easily, hence the little nips and scratches from other dogs which would be minor to a non grey, but show up as battlescars in a GH. Generally speaking, there shouldn't be any cause for concern, unless something hasn't healed, obviously. Enjoy your houndie and please post some pics!! Quote Doe's Bruciebaby Doe's Bumper Derek Follow my Ironman journeys and life with dogs, cats and busy kids: A long road Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahicks51 Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 A lot of greys have skin injuries from the days when they were pups on the farm. Some more may be accumulated during their racing years, but I understand those are relatively uncommon. Thin skin, short fur, and little subcutaneous fat works out to be a miserable combination when it comes to formation- and visibility- of scars. Quote Coco (Maze Cocodrillo) Minerva (Kid's Snipper) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spencers_Greyt Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Hi Christina and Welcome! Photos always help but a lot of racing Greyhounds have scars that are mostly picked up from their puppy days of rough playing. They can get hurt on the race track as well but I think those would be lesser scars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sweetpea Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Sweetpea's worst scar came after she got home! The fawns always show scars worse than just about any other color, except maybe whites? She took a tumble down the stairs, scraped her leg and that paper-thin-old-lady-prednizone-skin just tore. Had she been a Labrador or Golden Retriever, she wouldn't have even broken the skin. She's got a 3 inch scar now on her front leg. I think the scars are less an indication of mis-deeds and definitely more an indication of the very thin skin greyhounds have. Welcome! Buzzy and the lovely and scars-are-cool Sweetpea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Greytluv Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Hi Christina. Welcome to GT. My Doni Rae has a lot of scars and she's proud of every one of them. She has a big attitude so I'm sure that helped Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UESBrindle Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Yep- as other have said, I think it's quite normal. When we brought home William, he had a round scar with a diameter of about 1.5 inches on his side. The skin certainly looks a bit different from the rest of him, but just like humans, scars don't bother at all once it's healed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PhillyPups Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Mine got them as puppies. As said before the fawns, whites and blacks show really bad, brindles, not so much. Puppies play hard and greyhound skin tears easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KF_in_Georgia Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 My Jacey has what I call her "secret scar"--it's hidden because it falls on her side, right where she changes from white to black, and it just doesn't show at all. My Sam has a scary-looking scar on his chest. It's at least four inches long on the straight section, and has a bit branching off the main line for about two inches. I rather suspect that my klutzy boy was running and just ran right over a branch or something sticking up from the ground. The worst of the scar is at the deepest portion of his chest. He was two when he came to me--with the injury completely healed and mostly covered in fur--and Sam never raced, so this seems to be a klutzy, clumsy goofball-type puppy scar. In the seven years he's been here, Sam has acquired a couple of minor scars: staples for a cut on his foot, and a scraped-bare patch on his knee (he scraped his shin on the footboard of my bed). Quote Kathy and Q (CRT Qadeer from Fuzzy's Cannon and CRT Bonnie) and Jane (WW's Aunt Jane from Trent Lee and Aunt M); photos to come. Missing Silver (5.19.2005-10.27.2016), Tigger (4.5.2007-3.18.2016), darling Sam (5.10.2000-8.8.2013), Jacey-Kasey (5.19.2003-8.22.2011), and Oreo (1997-3.30.2006) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Miss_Chris428 Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Thank you so much, everyone! I truly appreciate the comforting words and I was terrified that something terrible had happened to her. I'm realizing very quickly that there's a huge difference between my Grey and my Dalmatian / Savannah cats! She is very light in color, although brindle is a more accurate description. She looks very much like William and Anna Banana, from the above pictures. Oddly enough, her name is Anna and I call her Banana! I wish I knew how to post pictures of her on here! I haven't quite figured that out, but I am so proud of her and want to show her off! Thank you for the warm and gracious welcome to your site! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahicks51 Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Now that Minerva is several weeks post-op, you can't even see the huge incision they made down her neck. It was several inches long- perhaps the fact that it was a nice, clean incision contributed, but it may also be that when they're done growing the scars don't show quite so much. Just a guess. Quote Coco (Maze Cocodrillo) Minerva (Kid's Snipper) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest littlesyd85 Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Welcome from Ohio! I agree with the masses on this one... Most greys have scars from their track days. Part of this has to do with the fact that greyhounds have thin skin and the cut easily. Also there are a lot of bald butt greys! At Greyhound Adoption of Ohio's annual Canine Fun Days & Greyhound Reunion we have a baldest butt contest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBass Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 I think the scars are less an indication of mis-deeds and definitely more an indication of the very thin skin greyhounds have. I think that Buzzy hit the nail on the head. Piper has a couple of scars he came with and I had wondered about them and worried a bit too. I wonder and worry far less now that I've got two more young, active greys in the house. Some one of the 3 usually has some sort of minor scrape because that delicate thin skin tears so very easily. In the past 2 months, both MoMo and Spirit have gotten scars from little "nothing" events in the yard or house. Mo now has two small hairless strips on one side where Piper's teeth grazed her skin when she barged into him and he told her to cut it out. I really mean grazed to--there was no bite, just a couple of scrapes. Once the scabs fell off, the hair has not shown any signs ob growing back. I didn't see what happened to Spirit in the living room but it left him with a boo boo that is scabbed over now and is sure to leave a scar. Congratulations on your new greyhound! Welcome to GreyTalk, too! --Lucy Quote Lucy with Greyhound Nate and OSH Tinker. With loving memories of MoMo (FTH Chyna Moon), Spirit, Miles the slinky kitty (OSH), Piper "The Perfect" (Oneco Chaplin), Winston, Yoda, Hector, and Claire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KennelMom Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Having just raised a litter of greyhound pups, I can tell you that they play ROUGH! Also, given the opportunity to lay on a cushy bed or carpet on the floor, they all tended to prefer the harder surface. No idea why. Our pups were placed at about 10 weeks old, but I can imagine how another year and half together would result in even rougher play and lots of scars! Some litters are rougher than others... Our pets have also acquired scars (we prefer the term "proof of life experience") while here as pets...either a scuffle or just living an active life of running and playing (we have a large natural area in our yard) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicocat Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Puppys puppies puppies! You would't believe how hard they play! It's pretty normal for a litter to be split up on the farm into smaller groups with the "feisty" ones in the same run so they won't beat up the less playful. It's VERY unusual for this kind of play to happen in the turnout pen or on the track. Allowing roughhousing in a turnout pen wouldn't be a very good idea with 30 dogs! That's one of the reasons almost every racing greyhound understands the word "HEY" -- it means stop that! Quote Ann Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Miss_Chris428 Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 That's one of the reasons almost every racing greyhound understands the word "HEY" -- it means stop that! Very Interesting! I was wondering why the word "NO" was lost on Anna, but she seemed to understand "UH UH" or "HEY"! Wonderful and very useful information! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trudy Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 Most of Jet's were likely from puppy play. Her worst 2 scars are from living with me - her degloving from the dog door and a rose bush attack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicocat Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 That's one of the reasons almost every racing greyhound understands the word "HEY" -- it means stop that! Very Interesting! I was wondering why the word "NO" was lost on Anna, but she seemed to understand "UH UH" or "HEY"! Wonderful and very useful information! Thanks! They pretty much understand "KNOCK IT OFF", which often follows the "HEY". Quote Ann Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasgreys Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Hi Christina and welcome to Greytalk! Did you adopt from GALT? If so, what was her name in rescue? I'm wondering if it's a girl I'd know... One of the things that amazes me about Greys is that they can get huge skin cuts with just about no bleeding and seemingly no pain. Their skin is thin compared to other dogs I've had (Dobermans and Weimaraners) and they do tend to end up with scars. Smooches to your Anna Banana! Quote Lin, with Nick the Greyhound Missing my girls Nadia, Tallulah, Cinderella, and my heart-dog Alexa, and my precious boys Twister, Loki, and Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mom2Shiloh Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Someone needs to tell her how to post pictures so we can see her girl-- I KNOW how, but if I explain it will take 4 times the normal paragraphs I have lots of puppy scars -- on me ... serves me right for not being able to resist a wiggling jostling well-clawed tribe of bouncing greyhound puppies hehe Seriously though, my first greyhound, Harley, was a fawn and he could get a skin tear from Looking at a tree branch! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Miss_Chris428 Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Did you adopt from GALT? If so, what was her name in rescue? I'm wondering if it's a girl I'd know... I DID adopt from GALT and they were so great! We can't wait to start taking her to the Greyt Fun events, show and tells, and meet and greets! We just have to get her through some obedience training first! As beautiful and sweet as she is, she could use a little "coaching" in the behavior department! Her registered name is Kiowa LL Cool and her rescue name was Missie. Missie just didn't seem to fit her personality and she didn't know that name, so we decided to change it. Anna seems to fit her laid back, but charismatic personality! Still trying to figure out how to load pictures... I have one of her on my "profile" but I don't know if it's visible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooby172 Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 I have a greyhound now that I raised from 12 weeks old. Not a scar or mark on her when I got her. Several scars now from playing and roughhousing with my other dogs. I don't even noticew them anymore. Linda, Valor, Keeva and Bella Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.