Bone Spurs

[inugrey]

Reading the recent arthritis thread, which was very helpful, got me thinking about Inu and his various issues. He's a baby only turning 8 in a few weeks but he's had issues with his toes since the age of three it seems. Anyway, this fall our vet diagnosed both arthritis and bones spurs (yes plural). As a crazy doggie mommy I wanted a second opinion and general advice from one of the greyhound gurus. I drove five hours to see Dr. Radcliffe in West Virginia, a man whose love and experience of the breed I very much respect. And he confirmed the diagnosis and recommended Rimadyl most likely for Inu's life and of course glucosamine (acti-flex).

 

Inu also deals with an interdigital cyst that will inflame with some regularity and toes on either side of the cyst seems to get infected and swollen at the same time the cyst gets big and icky. For that he has a standing prescription for cipro and I use a weak tea of iodine and soak his feet twice a day.

 

So there's the back story of my baby's feet. He's happy and healthy otherwise and was just running in the yard. I am pretty comfortable with what we are doing to manage his pain etc. Recently I've noticed a recurring open sore on one of his toes. It is on the end right where the toenail joins the toe. It's not a cyst it's an open wound. Is it possible that the bone spur is pushing on his skin? With all that he's on am I some how preventing it from healing properly? Am I crazy and it's just that he keeps aggravating it when he runs in the yard? I'll gladly listen to any feedback and other stories of life with these types of ailments.

[Guest Energy11]

Sorry to hear about Inu's little feet!

 

Goldie has arthritis of the right rear foot. SHE gets "raw" marks on her weight baring toe from the other toe rubbing on it when she walks ... She doesn't seem to really care, and it doesn't seem to bother her, but I know it is from the rubbing. I still give her the Dasequin supplement and a Deramaxx when needed, and she is fine.

 

Maybe you are just looking at a "rubbing" issue?

 

Good Luck with all of this!

[CaliforniaGreys]

Where are the bone spurs?

[inugrey]

spurs are in his toes

[Cully]

My Gracie was dx with arthritis when she was 4 . She was just dx with bone spurs also. She has the arthritis in her front left wrist w/the bone spurs in the same wrist. One of the bone spurs looks like a fish hook. She is on deramaxx once a day and tramadal up to 3 times a day. She is also on joint supplements. This combo seems to work for her.

Good luck

Edited May 12, 2010 by Cully

[Guest SusanP]

I don't know about the open sore; you might want to have a vet look at it. But I have bone spurs in my two big toes and can tell you about that. Sometimes they are not a real problem. Other times, they "catch" and hurt when I try to walk; I end up limping. And now and then they become inflammed and hurt so much I can barely walk or tolerate even a blanket on them. These episodes can last for weeks until I get the inflammation under control again. I'm planning to have a simple surgical procedure done to smooth down the spurs--I put off scheduling it when our Wizard got sick. I wonder if such a procedure could be done on a dog?

Edited May 12, 2010 by SusanP

[Batmom]

How often does he get the open sore? Could be there is some foreign material in there that is causing a problem.