Corns -Any New Treatments?

[FiveRoooooers]

Yep, what the others said. Make sure the pad is clean and dry before applying the tape. I use a piece of tape big enough that it doesn't exactly cover the entire toe pad, but pretty close. Otherwise, as you discovered, the tape is too small to form good adhering edges. You do need to firmly press the tape onto the toe and "fold/press" the edges to ensure a good stick to the toe pad.

 

Black Gorilla tape is fine!

[Guest Amber]

Well i returned the tape explaining that it wasn't sticky and the girl agreed that it seemed much less sticky than normal. So ? Will try Gorilla and if that doesn't stick on, will need to abandon duct tape and try something else.

 

Fey went to the park this afternoon but it's so cold here the grass is hard and her corn seems pretty sore now, even though she had a boot on it. Think i need to get the therapaw ones, just wish they were a bit more reasonable price.

[Guest Amber]

Ok so I've managed to get the tape to stick on for 24 hours at a time by putting a plaster on top to hold in place until that falls off. Then when she walks on it, her weight gets the tape to stick.

 

I've noticed when I press the tape onto her toe, she doesn't pull it away so much - it seems less painful. This could be because I've been giving her Metacam and only very short walks though, rather than the tape doing anything.

 

What is likely to happen, will the corn shrink, die, fall out? Should I be doing anything else besides keeping the tape on the whole time?

[Walliered]

I have asked my vet (or actually the techs) not to shave my dogs legs anymore in prep for a needle. They don't have to and by not shaving the dogs do not lick the area. Works for us!

[Guest Amber]

Thanks that's a good idea - I will do that next time she has to have a needle in.

 

She is still completely obsessed with the shaven bit and keeps nibbling at her vetwrap bandage and pulling it off!

 

Rather sadly in the past two weeks, my main interaction with my dog has become re-applying dressings and bandages several times a day and putting boots on when they fall off, instead of going on long walks, agility class, playing ball or training.

 

So I'm going to try and do more stuff with her in the house, play with toys and get her feeling better.

[Guest Amber]

Much better day yesterday - she did some ball chasing off lead in a grassy area and generally a bit happier.

 

I notice that her corn does seem less painful - today she even walked a bit (for less than a minute ) on hard paving bootless without a limp. But not sure if that is due to Metacam or duct tape.

 

I'm going to cut the daily Metacam to see what happens.

Edited January 21, 2015 by Amber

[Guest Jake522]

My 5 year old hound has three corns, all on different pads. My vet practice has no experience with corns so we are trying the duct tape method. So far the only problem is getting the tape to stay on. He manages to get the tape and socks off.

[Guest Amber]

Hey everyone. Well I've managed to get the same piece of tape to stay stuck on for 3 days now by putting a human waterproof plaster on top. Both tape and plaster are still on.

 

Her corn is no longer sore!! today we walked on pavements, gravel with no problems and no boot on. It's amazing! I don't know what the corn looks like now as it's been taped 3 days, but it's no longer bothering her.

 

after she was running about and playing a few days ago she sprained her other leg! She has been getting sprains all the time past 6 months. Her ligaments must be prone to it now, I've got her on a supplement Yumove. So her other leg is the problem now and we've just been doing v short leash walks, but tne corn seems to be under control.

[Hubcitypam]

Rex tolerated the tape but didn't like socks and hated Therapaws with a vengeance. The lady that owns Therapaws is very very nice and has a great product but Rex wouldn't have anything to do with coverings for his feet in any form.

[Guest Amber]

The tape has finally fallen off after aboit 4 or 5 days. The pad is dry and cracked where it was stuck, including an area of healthy pad, cos i had to make it bigger than the corn to stay on. So I'v mosturised and hope it goes normal again.

 

Hard to see but i think the corn is looking more like a black dot. Should i continue with the duct tape?

 

She was walking pretty well on hard ground yesterday, just a trace of a corny limp. The complication with her straining her other leg has meant minimal walks and no off leash past few days, so I'm hoping the corn improvement isn't just down to restricted exercise.

 

Her other leg is better now so will gradually up the exercise this week.

[Guest Amber]

Fey's limp is back on hard ground. Since the 5 day tape fell off, cant get a new bit to stick on. Think it was minimal exercise and metacam that gave the illusion of corn being better.

 

will persevere with it for one whole month tho and then try something else

[turbotaina]

I've never found NSAIDs particularly helpful for corn pain. We used tramadol, so you might want to ask your vet for that (assuming you've got something similar there).

[Guest Amber]

Yes i read that metacam isn't meant to help corns but it seems to with Fey. I took her off it for a couple of days and her limp was much worse. Back on it last night and she's more comfy.

 

I just can't get the tape to stay on at all now! I keep putting new bits on, about 5 x yesterday.

[Guest Amber]

At long last the gorilla tape i ordered on amazon arrived a few days ago and it's much stickier than the Duck tape, sticks on straight away. She had the tape on 2 days before it fell off, so I've filed the pad with a pumice foot file and put a new tape on. The corn is still there but looks somehow smaller, better?

 

I feel hopeful again that the duct tape may get rid of it. A few days ago after duct tape removal her pad was all soft and the corn was exposed as a little yellow nub there was a drop of yellow fluid in it (sweat?), but then the pad and corn went back to normal.

 

With the combo of metacam, tape and a padded boot for hard ground she can exercise like normal without limping. But I'd obviously rather kill the corn off and dispense with the metacam.

 

I read somewhere that it's recommended the corny foot should always and forever be cushioned with a boot for hard ground and a lot of walking on hard paving avoided even after the corn is gone, to prevent reoccurrence. This is going with the theory that the corn is caused by pressure of the bone onto the soft tissue. The boot helps but is a hassle, on/off/adjusting it, cleaning it. But if it prevents corns i guess it's worthwhile.

[turbotaina]

The sad news is that you may never be rid of the corn. We fought with Turbo's for 5 years, had it hulled multiple times, it fell out on its own a few times, but it always came back. I am a big proponent of Therapaw boots. We did the boot on all walks when he was lame, and when he was really lame, we added tramadol. The boot makes a huge difference, but make sure you get one with a padded bottom (or better yet, just get a Therapaw).

There were actually times when his pain was so bad, I seriouly considered amputating the toe. In the end though, he would always return sound, so I never did it.

[Guest Amber]

Well we went to agility class for first time since the corn appreared and its in a barn with a dirt floor, so quite soft and she did OK , no boot on. She did start holding her paw up towards the end, so i put her boot on then (it tends to fall off if she's running).

 

Yes at the moment I'm using a soft boot with 2 silicone gel 'party feet' inside but will prob buy a therapaw, although i heard that they can rub the skin as they're quite hard.

 

We have to find ways of managing this whilst remaining optimistic that we can eventually get rid of it.

[turbotaina]

You can use a baby sock to help prevent rubs, though we honestly didn't have much of an issue with that.

[Guest HTC504]

Amber - I read your posts and feel like I am reading about my dog Ubet, we are going through the same thing. He developed corns a few months ago and at first hulling helped but the corns came back within a couple of weeks. He recently had a big one hulled and it is as though nothing was done. He has Neopaws boots which help on the pavement but it is nothing amazing. The best solution is only to walk him on soft grass, sand and snow. I moved to Canada 11 years ago from the UK and right now we just had 40cm of snow fall, it is soft and fluffy and he loves it. However the sidewalk/path is frozen and the ground is all frozen hard on his paws. He also doesn't put his foot down on our tiled and wooden floor, (we only have a few rugs). We have tried moisturizing with bag balm and also castor oil but they don't seem to make much difference. We will try the duct tape method again now, it helped with his walking before. Otherwise there is a homeopathic treatment called Lori Rose which we will try, Lori is in Ireland and I have read lots of good things about it. Ubet only has three toes on his good front foot and we had lots of problems with an infection with that one, now that is healed the corns have come on other one. We can't win.....good luck with the treatments.

[Guest Amber]

Hi, thanks for your post. This corn situation is really confusing, especially as it the lameness comes and goes. Yesterday we had a full days normal exercise, including an hour long walk with off leash running. She did so well, it was almost like no corn -tho i did have her boot on for the leashed part.

 

today, quite sore. All tne snow is frozen here and hard today, so no soft grass.

 

I do think that the duct tape seems to work a bit, there is improvement. In the house, even on wood flooring she is ok. It's just paving.

 

So it's worth trying i think. I may try Lori Rose next. I hope your boys corns improve soon.

[tbhounds]

Your hound may have something more than a corn that's bothering her--you had mentioned that she responded well when given metacam. Corns don't usually become less painful with the use of NSAIDs so perhaps she has arthritis or something else going on in the limb.

[Guest Amber]

Thanks. Well since June last year she had a series of lameness episodes on various legs, that seemed to be sprains or strains. The worst one was a stifle injury about 10 weeks before the corn. She was so bad on that one, couldn't weight bear or toilet for 24 hrs she had x rays but they did not show up anything (both me and the vet had suspected cruciate ). So, she is quite sensitive to pain, and the way she acts is quite disproportionate to the actual injury.

 

all of these minor injuries were running / ball related, as she is a ball chaser. Still, i thought it odd she was so prone but tne vet just said it was ball, athlete's injuries, she's a greyhound. She may have been graded off the track due to injury for all i know. So i put her on Yumove supplements and no injuries or limping till tthe corn. I at first attributed the limping to one of her usual episodes.

 

So I honestly think that it is the corn that's the problem. Not sure why metacam seems to help.

[Guest Amber]

Just a quick update. After almost 1 month on the duct tape method, Fey's corn is a lot better, she can do normal exercise. I do still put her boot on for hard ground, but this has got to be a habit and I'm worried to go bootless. She did do a 15 min pavement walk the other night with no boot and there was a slight limp, but no limp with boot on.

 

We have run out of metacam and she's been fine for past 2 days without it.

 

The pad looks normal, the corn is still there, it never came out or softened up again, it's now a tiny whitish dot.

 

So i dunno. She's not in pain and walking well just now. Not sure how the tape works but seems to do something. I'm not sure how long to keep going with the tape?

 

Anyone know?

[spottydog]

No expert here... but I THINK the tape works because dogs sweat through their paws and it softens the area up. The corn seems to be of a harder material and kind of gets partially expelled because of the difference in texture...that's my notion anyway! I had to keep his boot on to keep it even more moist until I hulled it. It's still there but doesn't bother him after 3 months or so. I left it on for 3 weeks or so until it was raised above the pad and I deem it ready to be worked on.

[Guest Amber]

Ok thanks. There was a point when the pad temporarily went all gooey and soft and I saw some 'edges' on the corn - I guess maybe I could have tried to extract it then. This gooey state only lasted a short while and I put another bit of tape on.

 

The corn is now pretty much invisible to the naked eye but doesn't seem to be bothering her anymore (for the moment anyway).

 

I'm just keeping going with the tape for now, as it doesn't seem to cause any problems. I had an idea I read somewhere that the tape also works by starving the corn of oxygen so it dies off...maybe that is what has happened, and it's shrunk, but not come out?

 

ETA I keep on updating on this thread cos I hope it might be useful to future corn dog owners as a sort of record of what to expect (though I think not every corn behaves the same way and different methods probably help different dogs)

Edited February 10, 2015 by Amber

[Guest Amber]

Update! Duct tape after one month has worked great!

 

For the past 5 days we've been walking all surfaces bootless, no hobbling or limping or paws held up.

 

The corn still appears to be there, but very small and shrunken and causing no pain.

 

i know it may make a comeback but just now it's great, she's brand new. So glad i stuck with the tape and it worked out.