busfrsr100 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 Stanley has a wound on the side of his outside (Pinkey?) toe of his front left paw. It started back sometime in October he was zooming about and then I noticed a limp and then I noticed a lot of blood. After consulting with vet, I kept it clean put him on an antibiotic and it healed perfectly without any type of sutures. About two weeks after healing, he was zooming about and boom the same laceration re-opened. I spoke with the vet again and he indicated to take the same approach because it is an almost impossible area to stitch. Took the same approach this time no antibiotics and it healed again. Rinse, wash, repeat. Two more healing periods (Looks fully healed) two more zoom sessions and two more re-openings of the same cut. Vet says that we may need to consider putting the pup under in order to explore the wound to see if there is a foreign body (he is a grey specialist so he knows his grey specific anesthesia thankfully). Anyone else have any other experience with something like this? I feel very badly because every time it gets re-opened, there are no more walks or zoomies for a while which decreases quality of living. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmdsmoxie Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 I'm wondering if its the nail on his his back leg that is hitting his front leg and cutting it. Four times in the same place would seem unusual from normal running if the cut has healed. If you've never seen a greyhound stride watch this video and the slo-mo will show how far the back legs can go in front of the front legs. Spiking your own leg does happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3greytjoys Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 Thera-paw boots are great to have available for Greyhounds' paw protection during injury recoveries, and/or to use as periodic injury prevention. https://www.therapaw.com/therapawboot Agree with above post. Likely completely different to Stanley whose wound seems to be on the side of his paw. One of our hounds stepped on tiny pieces of gravel that dug into a paw pad more deeply with each step while on a hike. Took two surgeries to get it all out, but he never stopped limping for months between those two surgeries. Other times, he occasionally ripped claws while making turns during runs, but those took much longer than 2 weeks to heal. Seems paw pads can take a long time to fully heal, even without the added extreme pressure of running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiveRoooooers Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 Sounds like it could be what Aiden went through. His story is here. Taking the toe was the only solution and he has never looked back. Good luck, and please keep us posted! Quote Old Dogs are the Best Dogs. Thank you, campers. Current enrollees: Punkin. AnnIE Oooh M Angels: Pal . Segugio. Sorella (TPGIT). LadyBug. Zeke-aroni. MiMi Sizzle Pants. Gracie. Seamie . (Foster)Sweet. Andy. PaddyALVIN!Mayhem. Bosco. Bruno. Dottie B. Trevor Double-Heart. Bea. Cletus, KLTO. Aiden 1-4. Upon reflection, our lives are often referenced in parts defined by the all-too-short lives of our dogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MP_the4pack Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 I agree with fiveroooers. Emma had what sounds like the same thing. After 6 months of healing and reopening, we took off the toe. She is fine now. Does not miss it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racindog Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 Sounds like it could be what Aiden went through. His story is here. Taking the toe was the only solution and he has never looked back. Good luck, and please keep us posted! THIS! I know exactly what you are talking about because I too had a hound with this phenomena. It doesn't happen often but it does happen occasionally in greyhounds. I have never even heard of it happening in other breeds. And the overwhelming majority of vets will be stumped by it because they probably have never seen or heard of it before. This happened to Slim on BOTH front feet. It would heal. It would tear open. Over and over. Even the extremely experienced board certified vet was stumped by it. I can put in laymens terms though what is apparently going on. At some point they dislocate or injure the toe. It supposedly heals up. There are some problems with that though. #1 The healed skin is not as strong as the previously uninjured skin was and most importantly the soft tissue i.e. the injured ligaments and connective tissue will begin shriveling up little by little. Over time-and not a long time either- they will essentially just be non functioning and really kind of disappear. When this happens the only thing basically holding the toe on is the weak skin. Therefore it is repeatedly torn open and injured. It reached the point with Slim that when he would tear it open again you could easily see the bones in the toe! Therapaws helped a great deal. The only cure is to amputate the toe. Since Slim had both front feet affected with multiple toes we couldn't do that so we just had to use the Therapaws all the time and then endure the occasions when one would tear open again regardless. My vet laughed and said he was going to name this condition Slim's Syndrome since it was so unique and rare. Anyway- IMO get the toe amputated ASAP and he should be fine UNLESS he develops it in the other foot or another toe. But more than likely he will continually re-injure it over and over without amputation as the ligaments and connective tissue that used to secure it have wasted away and it is only being held on by the skin which is simply too weak to do the job. Now this is a laymen's explanation so it is not in vet language but it is what I learned from our experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MP_the4pack Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 And amputating now will hopefully prevent a joint infection which Emma eventually got. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busfrsr100 Posted February 2, 2019 Author Share Posted February 2, 2019 Thank you all for your feedback and sorry for the delayed response. I was delayed in responding because of course shortly after I posted, the cut healed and has not re-opened since. Crossing my fingers this is permanent, but based on all of your feedback, if it re-opens I should at minimum discuss the possibility of removing the toe with my vet. That seems so extreme, but I understand it may be the only option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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