Corn or puncture?

[Bails]

Hi everyone, 

So I've had my greyhound for about 3 weeks now and 2 of those three she has been limping. At first we thought it was a stone bruise and were treating it as such with colloidal silver, although the 'bruise' kept getting worse and were advised that it may be a corn. 

Attached is a photo of the corn. 

Is this a corn or a puncture? I've read a few threads where people thought they were corns but in fact something was stuck in the dog's paw. Does this look like a corn to everyone else??

 

 

[HeyRunDog]

Corns are usually invisible to start with and the only sign is when the dog starts to limp on hard ground but is OK on softer surfaces like grass. As they develop you might see a black dot appear on the pad then a raised lump.

Corns are a hard keratin mass that can easily look like a small stone. That could be a corn because if it out you get the same type of hole. Keep an eye on it as they do reoccur. Unfortunately I'm speaking with experience as Grace has three of the persistent blighters on one foot.

[GreyhndHomecare]

It might be both - That happened last year to my Lily.  I know she stepped on something, because I saw it happen while we were out on a walk.  I just couldn't get it out, though.  The vet was stymied by it, too.  She got better, but developed a corn in that spot about a month later.  I ended up putting a TheraPaw boot on her (just for outdoors), and trying everything from Epsom soaks to corn medicine to draw it out.  I pulled out 3 corns over the next 7 months, each progressively smaller,  and now she's been OK for about 3 months.  She still has a spot there, which I keep an eye on, in case I need to treat it again.

Facebook has a really good Greyhounds with Corns group with lots of tips.

 

Gail

[FiveRoooooers]

Having been through multiple issues with Aiden’s feet, that pic to me looks like a foreign body. Have you tried soaking the foot with Epsom salt? You might consider getting an x-ray to better see what you’re dealing with. 

[macoduck]

Yup, do what FiveRoooooers said: epsom salt soaks and xray if no improvement.
 

[greysmom]

Difficult to say.  If I had to bet, I'd say foreign body.  Epsom salt soaks are appropriate either way. 

If it is a corn you definitely need to get those nails back much further.

[Finnsliz]

That’s exactly what my Snap’s paw looks after I Hull his corn. 

[GoDiego]

I'm actually having a similar issue with my buddy Diego at the moment.

 

I've been to the vet 3 times, have done X-Rays and they cant seem to see a foreign body when they investigated.

 

If it's a corn would an X-Ray reveal that? 

[HeyRunDog]

6 hours ago, GoDiego said:

If it's a corn would an X-Ray reveal that? 

No. A corn is made up of a mass of hard keratin which doesn't show up on x-rays. If Diego walks normally on soft surfaces such as grass and carpet but limps on hard surfaces then it's probably a corn.