Sore Paw/cracked Pads

[Frenchy]

Hi,

 

We have a four year old male retired greyhound. We've had him for just over a year, and he is, of course, perfect.

 

Every couple of months since we've got him, he's started hobbling, then limping, whilst walking on hard and rough surfaces (fine on grass and carpets, and generally fine on our wooden floor). The owner of the kennels where we adopted him from attributed this to cracked pads, caused by walking on pavements after only ever being on grass/sand, and suggested vaseline to keep them soft. This has generally been effective, and each time he was walking normally again in a week or two, and we started moisturising his paws twice a week, even if they weren't sore.

 

However, he's had a sore paw for around six weeks now (maybe two months). When daily vaseline treatment didn't improve him, we took him to the vet, who said it was probably just hard skin on his pads causing him discomfort. She cut off the worst bits, and gave him some pain medication as she thought his hip was bothering him, probably because of walking funny. That was about a month ago. Since then, we've started putting this paw butter on his paw daily. His paw seems to have toughened up with this, but his walking hasn't really improved at all. He wears a Therapaw boot when walking, and gets along fine, but if we take it off then he starts hobbling again. Again, he walks fine on soft surfaces, and on smooth surfaces, but starts limping if he's on a hard rough surface.

 

Is there anything else we could try? Or just carry on with the paw butter/vaseline?

 

 

[BatterseaBrindl]

Sounds like he has corns.

[greysmom]

Classic corn symptoms. Inspect each pad on his feet closely for a circular, horn-like or callous-like protrusion. Sometimes rubbing a tiny bit of cream toothpaste will make it visible. There's an excellent Facebook group caled "Greyhounds With Corns" you can join for tons of info and support. If you're not a FB member it's worth it to join just for this group.

 

FYI, many vets know next to nothing about corns in greyhounds, so your vet may not have recognized it either. For the time being - until you can research this problem and find a way to manage your dogs corns - you need to switch to a extra moisturizing cream, like one that is use to heel callouses or cracked hands. Stay away from petroeum-based products like Vaseline. Even a staple for paw moisturing like Bag Balm isn't as good. Something like Burt's Bees Hand Salve, O'Keefe's Working Hands, or others like these.

[GreyTzu]

Corns.

[Frenchy]

Thanks all. Neither the vet or the kennel owner was able to spot any corns, but I'll make sure and have a good look again. The vet practice is the one used by the greyhound kennels, so they definitely know about greyhounds and corns.

 

Will get hold of some hand salve anyway.

[4My2Greys]

It could be that a foreign object is embedded in his foot.

[FiveRoooooers]

Sigh. It could also be pain in his shoulders. Mayhem has been seen by our neurologist and followed closely by our own fabulous vet. Without an MRI, which I cannot do, I am managing his bilateral lameness with meds, which help a lot, but he is never sound on pavement. He does not have corns.

[Guest jlbfitz]

If you've ruled out corns, double-check for any signs of a puncture. Sometimes they've done it a while ago and it's partially healed around the debris.

 

It's entirely possible that there is some underlying neck/back/muscle injury, but it also is sometimes just their feet. They're accustomed to running on sand, so it does take a while for them to callous up. With my girl, we knew she had bad paw pads because she kept puncturing them really easily with debris on our walks. Then we'd spend several days easing the foreign object out of her foot, and as soon as we started walking her again, there was another piece of debris.

 

We used a combination of boots and this paw cream when we got our girl. I ended up checking her paws every night, and whenever they felt rough, I rubbed this on. At the beginning it was every other day, now we only need it once a week or so. We also put boots on her for some of our walks (Ex, if we walked her three times a day, we put boots on for two of those times, then one, now she doesn't use the boots unless the weather is bad).

 

As of today, she hasn't had a puncture since September-ish.

[PrairieProf]

Foreign body is actually quite possible if you can't find a corn. My Cocoa stepped on some absolutely minuscule little glass pellets and it required two separate excavations at the vet to get them out -- with ultrasound the second time to see that there was still something there. It was not easy at all to see anything on the pad, although I guess it did ooze some. She was also fine on grass and even on smooth pavement (after the first excavation) but lame on hard rough pavement like the street.