Twisted Toes

[ramonaghan]

This is a random, purely out-of-curiosity question. All of Sweep's toes on her left foot are significantly twisted to the left. It does not affect her gait at all, but a few people have asked about or commented on it. The only thing listed in the medical records I have is a hernia repair and her spay and dental when she was right off the track. Is it possible she was born with them like this? If so, I wouldn't have thought she'd go on to race. Anyone else have a hound with similar wonky toes and no record of injury?

 

 

 

Of course I think she's perfect.

[KF_in_Georgia]

Those are some significantly twisty toes there. It might have been an injury that couldn't be treated. Sweep did have a long gap between races (1 June 2011 to 18 July 2011) after a race where she was last from start to finish (even though they'd switched her from 603m to 503m races). Nothing about an injury is mentioned in the race notes, but she could have hurt the foot off-track. Whatever caused that gap of 7 weeks between races doesn't seem to have slowed her down much in the long-term.

 

I've got a girl who raced well, including Grade A for months, but graded off and retired at three years, nine months. She has an Achilles tendon that goes down the outside of her foot rather than down the back of her hock. That isn't mentioned in the race records, and none of the judges' comments on her races indicate when the problem started. She just ran well for months, then ran a lot less well. (She started at grade C in February 2007, was running grade A by September and stayed there until the end of May 2008. Then they ran her 7 times in June 2008, during which time she plummeted to grade D. She wobbled around B-C-D for another 7 months until she retired in January 2009.) And it's possible that the misplaced Achilles tendon happened after she retired, in the two and a half years before she was picked up as a stray.

Edited December 12, 2014 by KF_in_Georgia

[ramonaghan]

She has an Achilles tendon that goes down the outside of her foot rather than down the back of her hock.

 

Whoa, that made me squirm a little. Thanks for the insight! I probably should have added that Sweep's not at all sensitive about her feet being handled, so if it is an old injury she doesn't seem to have any lasting discomfort from it. And if it's congenital, I suppose it wouldn't have mattered as long as she was fast enough, but they're just so...twisty! Frito feet in more ways than one.

[KF_in_Georgia]

Good: Bad:

 

She walks on it normally and runs well on it, too. But she doesn't often put her weight on it when she stands. She's also got a corn on her front right foot, and that corn gives her more trouble than the tendon. Poor baby is all hobbled on her right side.

[Guest normaandburrell]

Interesting but very wonky pictures.

[ramonaghan]

Poor baby is all hobbled on her right side.

Aww. With her left side and Sweep's right, we could have a dog with normal feet! The pics are not as bad as I imagined, but still, how does something like that even happen? Ouch!

[NeedlenoseJake]

Our Jake has some crooked toes, and the nail trimmer commented that two of them were broken at one point. I didn't see anything in his records about it, but I'm assuming it was a track injury. They don't bother him and we call him "Crooked Toes"

 

[scullysmum]

I can't quite tell from the picture, but is it just the middle two toes that are deviating? I wonder if they got broken and just fused that way?

 

My angel Mulder never raced as I had him from a puppy but he had the lumpiest toes I have ever seen on a dog, he had bleeds into all of the joints at one time or another and the lumps were caused by calcification....this actually served to stabilise the joints and he never had any further problems with them...they were just ugly!

 

Johnny has one wonky toe on a hind foot, the webbing between the toes is also completely torn so I assume he did himself some damage, doesn't seem to bother him though.

[ramonaghan]

I can't quite tell from the picture, but is it just the middle two toes that are deviating? I wonder if they got broken and just fused that way?

 

The middle two are definitely the worst, but the outer one seems slightly off too. I will try to post a close-up later. (I'm embarrassed about the length of her nails right now...they've taken a backseat to dealing with the newly diagnosed diabetic cat the past couple of weeks.)