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Toe Issues


Guest xengab

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Guest xengab

My grey has had a toe issue for the last 3 plus months.

His 'pinky' toe on his left foot is swollen up, on advice of our adoption group we rested him for a month, had an xray done on his toe to rule out anything bad with the bone.

He was on rimadyl with no reduction of swelling.

 

He was only limping after play (zoomies) and when jumping out of the car.

 

Took him to the vet again on the 29th, another xray was done and a surgeon felt his toe, they did a fine needle aspiration. Results was inconculsive. Our options were, either biopsy or amputate his toe. We opted for biopsy as we want to know what it is.

 

Has anyone here had a greys toe removed? How long was the recovery period? Anything different we need to tell the surgeon to watch out for with a grey?? Our regular vet A(at the same practice) has greys herself, but we want to make sure the surgeon knows that we know our stuff too. We know he is a great surgeon as he's done surgeries on one of our cats, so his skills arent in question.

 

They think he could have a tumor in his toe, but not 100% sure which is why we didnt opt for amp, right away.

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Guest Scouts_mom

My Bree had a rear middle toe amputated by my adoption group before she came to me. I understand she broke it at the track and it did not heal well. By the time she got to the group, she wasn't using the foot at all. Rather than re-breaking it and trying to get it to heal correctly, they opted to just take the toe off. I don't think she has missed it at all.

 

My first grey, Scout, had a toe amputated on both rear paws due to corns that would not respond to treatment. The first amputation was done by an orthopedic surgeon. It healed quickly and I think Scout has relieved that the pain was gone. I tried to save money on the second one and let my regular vet do the amputation which was a big mistake. I'm not sure what she did wrong, but it did not heal and bone became exposed. I had to have to surgery redone. And once again, when it did heal I think all Scout was aware of was that it no longer hurt to walk. (Another benefit was the groomer gave me a discount for nail trims!)

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One of our Greyhounds had the same toe amputated (front left paw, far outside digit) four years ago, at age 10. Previous veterinary treatments + limited activity for 3 months resulted in no improvement (included constant limping). Final X-rays were evaluated by several local vets, and Dr. Couto. IIRC, dx was inconclusive but likely degenerative joint disease (DJD). Post toe amputation, all remaining toes have remained healthy to date.

 

A few tips if you end up having your boy's toe amputated:

 

- Paint that single toenail a bright color (like pink or yellow) with nail polish, and alert the surgeon to the polish so there is no mistaking which toe is to be removed during surgery.

 

- Ensure the surgeon removes the entire toe by cutting at the uppermost joint, and leaving rounded bone (meaning don't leave excess bone that could touch ground when hound is standing). This will prevent painful walking later, and prevents ongoing damage from excess sharp/pointed bone poking through skin.

 

- All our Greyhounds get a vet prescription for aminocaproic acid (5 day duration) to prevent excessive bleeding during and post surgeries. Costco pharmacy for tablets, or a compounding pharmacy for (dog safe) liquid form (beef flavor) are good options.

 

Note: GTer Macoduck noted a recent hefty price increase in her area for Amicar (a trade name for aminocaproic acid). Advance price check is recommended. If too expensive, an alternate drug appears to be tranexamic acid mentioned here: http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php/topic/316234-after-a-dental/?p=5894028

 

I don't recall toe amputation recovery time, but our hound healed well and functions normally.

That paw does seem a little more sensitive to being handled than the other paws, but amputation was the best decision in this case.

Edited by 3greytjoys
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That outside toe is a non-weight bearing toe so to be honest it won't be missed if you need to amputate. If the swelling hadn't gone down after rest and a rimadyl protocol I too would be concerned of a mass.

 

Yep. My group had a few fosters that had to have toe amputations and they healed up just fine. You'll be doing leash walks only for a month or two but after they're healed up, they're usually good to go.


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Guest xengab

Thankyou for all the helpful information. We are meant to find out today what the results are.

 

I'll be sure to print out the advice given about aminocaproic acid and the rounded bone.

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Guest xengab

3/4 of the sample tissue results have come back with no cancer! And our vet is pretty sure the rest will come back like that. He said it looks like it's an old injury that got re-injured thru play. The toe will always be big so swelling reduction wont happen. Least only walks for a month.

My husband is taking half days to work from home so our boy can be monitored as much as we can. Now to just get his toe healed from the biopsy.

 

Thanks people! This grey most likely will be keeping his toe for awhile.

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The biggest obstacle you face is a dog, unlike a person, doesn't know how to manage any kind of pain. A person with a toe that is bothering him will let it heal and if he runs a little and it starts to bother him he will stop. A dog can't tell you his toe is still a little sore after a month and you can let him go for a run and it is full speed ahead, hurting toe or not. Next thing you know the dog is limping again.

 

A dog that is still racing will be back racing in about 7 or 8 weeks if the toe is taken off. There is nothing to let heal except where the cut is and once that heals the problem is gone forever.

 

This isn't to say every problematic toe is taken off but a non-weight bearing toe has very little effect if any at all on a racer.

 

My advice is if he hurts that toe again it's time to get rid of it.

 

Dick

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Guest xengab

Thanks for the advice Dick ..

He is retired from racing but, loves to still run and play. We'd been told to look into agility with him as he seems to enjoy bouncing around.

 

Our vet told us the same thing, see how he goes but if it reoccurs, its much better to remove it. Now that we can get around the whole, OMG it could be cancer mind set. We can see how to adjust, ease him back into supervised play and then into full out greyhound runs at a dog park. Really does look like its an old racing injury.

 

Will also let us budget for this surgery if/when it is needed. It being deemed an old racing injury means insurance wont cover it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

My greyhound had a similar problem with her toe since last August. As she is quite prone to running related minor injuries and lameness and as she was not actually limping on it (only holding it up if she ran and turned sharply) I did not bother with the vet for a while. But after a few months, we did consult the vet. As she was not lame ordinarily when walking or even running (only when chasing toys) he did not think it was too serious and did not even x-ray. Her toe was swollen but my vet knows what a swollen toe looks like and he knows what a cancerous lump looks like. He said x-rays really won't tell us much.

 

I think it was likely a ligament or tendon injury and those soft tissue injuries take a very long time to heal up. At one point I did wonder if taking the toe off might be a faster route to complete recovery but once it's gone it is GONE. My previous grey had a slow growing cancer on her toe and the toe was removed and she was OK after it but never quite as fast, not quite the same and it did cause her more problems with balance and dragging the paw in very old age.

 

So personally I would only amputate as a last resort - say, if after 6 months, he cannot return to normal exercise.

 

My dog now seems OK 5 months after the original injury and we are back to ball chasing again. She was fine for leash walks the whole time but free running had to be restricted and then rationed.

 

Of course, your dog's injury may be worse. Just go with what your vet advises but do think carefully about amputation.

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