Corn? Or something else?

[lulah62]

Hullo! 

I know corns are a hot topic with greyhounds, so I'm hoping someone might be able to take a look at a picture and let me know if they think what I'm dealing with is indeed likely a corn.

 

Backstory is that my boy has had numerous diagnoses and surgeries on one of his toes - every vet he goes to has a different diagnoses (corn / fragment of bone adrift in his toe causing pain / tendon damage etc etc). He has always limped on his front leg, and it comes and goes with severity (he fancies a run= no limp, when it's raining outside = very bad limp) and historically we've not *always* been able to see any problem on the surface of the pad.

 

Recently, it's started to look a lot more like a classic corn so we've been treating is as such - a boot on hard ground, epsom salt soaks, mushers wax and dremelling. I'm not convinced it's making a difference to his comfort levels, and looking at other images of corns is making me wonder if it IS actually a corn after all

 

https://ibb.co/z4MfmQS

 

Here's a photo of before / after soaking and dremelling. The red dot in the centre makes me think it's maybe not a corn, as I've not seen any images of corns look like this before...  It's also possible this is related to the numerous surgeries he's had on his pad to remove corns / retrieve bone shard etc.

 

Grateful for any advice or opinions on his pads from someone who knows greyhounds and corns

 

Thanks in advance

[cleptogrey]

oh yeah- CORNS! one on the other toe as well. do not soak- you can use the cone shape dremel bit and hull it that way. a corn needs to be hard to be removed. 

[greysmom]

Yes, I would say a corn, as well.

If you're on Facebook, join the group Greyhounds with Corns.  Lots of support and treatment ideas.

There used to be many ideas of what caused corns - a virus, encapsulated foreign body, gait issues, etc - but current thinking is that they are the surface eruption of an injury to the main toe tendon, which is next to the bone in dog toes.  In general, corns are a life-long maintenance issue and are not something that can be "cured" like other medical issues.  You'll find all sorts of treatments on the FB page, but nothing beats epsom salt soaking, moisturizing, and home hulling.

There has been a recently developed surgery called a Flexor Tenotomy which cuts the injured tendon, releasing the tension on that toe, creating what's commonly called a "sprung toe."  It happens naturally during racing and zoomies and shows as a toe that points mostly upwards and flat instead of downwards and properly curved.  Anyway, releasing the tension on the injured tendon seems to make the corn disappear.  There's also a FB page dedicated to people who have had or want to get this surgery.

Your dog's pads look really super dry.  I would use a good, heavy duty moisturizer instead of the Mushers after each soaking.   Something like Burt's Bees Hand Salve, or any moisturizer for cracked heels or chapped hands.  Try and stay away from mainly petroleum based products (vaseline, etc) as they can be drying to pads as well.  And his nails need to be shortened considerably to keep his toes in the proper position during locomotion.

If his toe has been really damaged from previous treatments you *may* want to consider amputating that toe (though I would at least try the Flexor Tenotomy before going that route).

Good luck!

[lulah62]

Thanks so much for the detail there @greysmom - his nails are an ongoing issue - we dremel them but he hates it so they are a little longer than they aught to be. That one in particular looks very odd though as he tore it out years ago running and it now grows out at a strange angle - that particular toe is cursed!!

 

His last op was supposed to be a removal but the surgeon decided last minute to have a go at removing the bone shard we thought was causing the limp - needless to say it didn't work. I'm loathed to put him through another op (my childhood lurcher died on the operating table and he doesn't fair well with GA) as it doesn't seem to overly effect him (we walk him mainly on grass now, which he's fine on), but also keen to make sure we're doing everything to make sure it stays a minor inconvenience to him rather than a pain.

I'll definitely look to getting something more moisturising on his pads too - as you say, they're a lot drier than our girls ever are.

[HeyRunDog]

Grace has multiple corns the largest of which is the one the vet removed while she was undergoing an abscess removal from between her toes.

I've done the soaking, Burt's Bees Hand Salve and using human wart remover gel with dremmeling with varied amount of success but in the end I've found the best for long term care is to only take her for a walk on grass and use a padded boot with a baby sock, it keeps her toes together making the boot easier to get on, when she has to walk on hard surfaces. Over the winter walking on wet grass and damp leaf litter in the nearby woods some of the corns have gone and the larger one has shrunk in size.

[organistswife]

Nothing to add to the advice.