Partial Toe Amputation - One Year Later....

[Guest greyhoundude]

I'll try to make this as succinct as possible

 

A year ago, my four year old Greyhound broke his toe (right front paw, "ring" toe) while running. My vet recommended a partial amputation. The break was at the closest joint to the claw. Surgery went smoothly, "Keith" recovered nicely.

 

However, beginning a month or so ago, Keith began limping badly when walking on rough surfaces. He's fine on grass, carpet and other soft surfaces. He's even OK on smooth-ish concrete. In the back yard, he has no problem reaching full-speed. At first I thought it might be a corn, as these are classic symptoms for corns.

 

Yesterday I took him into my vet, as the limping...again, mainly on rough surfaces...is becoming worse. No corns (or other pad-related problems) could be found, so he took an x-ray. Strangely, the x-ray clearly showed that, for lack of a better description, a (very thin) bone on the very left side of the toe had grown and/or extended sharply forward at the edge of the toe. You can feel it on the toe and, after walking, you can see corresponding redness at the point the bone is extended.

 

My vet thinks he can perform minor surgery to (I guess) shave or otherwise alter the bone to alleviate what looks like outward pressure from the bone which may (or may not, I suppose) be causing the limping.

 

Sigh.

 

Not that it's likely, but has anyone else had this problem? I really don't want to go into the whole "full vs. partial amputation" debate. This problem is what it is. If anyone else has had this experience, I sure would like to hear from you.

 

Thanks to all of you in advance.

[PrairieProf]

No experience with this (my greyhound has a full toe amputation) but it seems to me it would make more sense to proceed to a full amp at this point rather than a half-measure that might or might not solve the problem and might or might not prevent it from recurring. But I would probably want a second opinion from another vet.

[macoduck]

When my Gracie had a toe amp my vet took 2 joints off. He didn't want any part of that toe to touch the ground and chafe. It healed well. Biopsy revealed a rare but benign tumor of the nail bed. That info doesn't help you much. Hope you can find some answers.

Edited April 22, 2014 by macoduck

[Opals_mom]

Interesting... my grey has the same issue. She is fine on soft surfaces but on rocks she has a really hard time. After her partial amputation I just figured some nerves were cut or moved around and it was just extra sensitive. I'll have to go home and poke around the pad of her foot. The problem for us is that after the amp she developed a corn, actually two right next to each other on the same toe, so I've always just figured that was the issue.

[Guest greyhoundude]

Interesting... my grey has the same issue. She is fine on soft surfaces but on rocks she has a really hard time. After her partial amputation I just figured some nerves were cut or moved around and it was just extra sensitive. I'll have to go home and poke around the pad of her foot. The problem for us is that after the amp she developed a corn, actually two right next to each other on the same toe, so I've always just figured that was the issue.

 

An x-ray clearly shows what looks like a bone spur on the left edge of the toe which is protruding forward. It's just a sliver of a bone spur, but it's visible.

[JJNg]

Any way you could post the x-rays? If they're digital, you could ask the vet to send them to you or copy them to a disc. Or if on regular films, you can take a digital photo of it (best done in B&W and with the macro setting). If he's going to need another surgery, I'd have to agree with PrairieProf that proceeding to a complete amp may be the best option to prevent future problems. If it's a bone spur, simply shaving it off won't address the underlying issue, and the bone spur will likely just regrow again.

[Guest LindsaySF]

I would do a full amp all the way up.