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Post by allthehounds on Jul 10, 2012 7:59:01 GMT -5
Hi, I just wondered if anyone has any experience with dislocated greyhound toes! About two weeks ago at ten in the evening Ernie set off across the garden in hot pursuit of some crows and unfortunately dislocated the middle toe on his back foot. The bone was sticking right out through the skin and he was obviously in a lot of pain so I called the vet straight away and we met him at the surgery. He x-rayed Ernie's foot in case his toe was broken too but luckily it wasn't however he had ruptured the ligaments at the side of the toe. The vet knocked him out and then operated straight away that night to put his toe back in to place and clean everything up etc. He came home the next morning with his foot all bandaged up and antibiotics and pain killers to take. Since then we have to go back to the vet every three days for a bandage change and for him to check it looks ok. The vet seems pleased with the way his toe is looking now and lots of the swelling has gone down but he's still got approx another two weeks of bandage changes to go. He's also only allowed outside on his lead and just to go to the toilet as he's supposed to be resting! I just wondered if anyone else had been through the same thing and if the toe healed normally in the end and how long the recovery process actually was? I know amputation is an option if it causes further problems but as a greyhound's bodyweight is supported mainly by those toes I'd be reluctant to do that as I'm not sure how he'd manage as he's not the most agile of greyhounds! Thanks for listening and any advice anyone's got to give is much appreciated. Sian & Ernie.
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Post by brenda on Jul 10, 2012 8:34:51 GMT -5
A friend of mine's greyhound recently dislocated her toe, she had an x-ray and the toe was bandaged, but she is now absolutely fine. Perhaps Ernie's injury was worse, but Millie's healed quickly and without any problems. Good luck for Ernie x
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Post by loopylou on Jul 10, 2012 11:11:28 GMT -5
A friend of mine's greyhound recently dislocated her toe, she had an x-ray and the toe was bandaged, but she is now absolutely fine. Perhaps Ernie's injury was worse, but Millie's healed quickly and without any problems. Good luck for Ernie x Hi Brenda welcome , come and say ''hello''and introduce your lovely Hounds on the intro bit , it's great on here very friendly and welcoming with a wealth of knowledge , plus East mid events. Linda Hi Sian,sorry to hi jack your thread and hope Ernie is soon on the mend.  |
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Post by mrhoads on Jul 10, 2012 12:50:07 GMT -5
Hi Sian, Our Tigger came back from running through the fields in 2007 with an open dislocation, similar to the one you are describing, on the third toe of her right hind foot. She also had a severe puncture wound on one of her front paws. Our vet (a greyhound owner herself) tried conservative management of strapping the toe, and abx, pain relief, etc. Tigger needed a GA to sort out her front paw. Three days later Tigger was limping and in agony again, so we took her back to the vet, who found that even with the strapping the toe was not holding the toe together, so she operated on the toe. Initially, the plan was to try to suture the ligaments back together, but she rang me during surgery to explain that there was nothing left of the ligaments to suture together, and although she could try to repair the toe, she felt that the toe would be subject to more pain and arthritis in the long run and she recommended amputation at that point. We opted for the amputation at that point. Tigger recovered quite quickly from the amputation (although she was never a great fan of the vet), and never seemed to miss the toe. It certainly didn't slow her down as much as her corns and later her arthritis did. She lived to the age of 13 1/2 last November. I never doubted that we made the right decision for her at the time. I would recommend that you play it by ear, and see how the toe appears to be healing up. All I would say is that open dislocations are particularly nasty, and I hope Ernie's heals up nicely. My guess that if it was going wrong, you would have more signs of it by now. Gentle hugs to Ernie.  X Mary |
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houndie
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Post by houndie on Jul 10, 2012 13:01:42 GMT -5
my bridge baby winnie had this.
she had to have one of the front toes amputated due to a very severe corn taking over the whole of the pad.
some considerable time later she yelped and when I looked down the next toe (to the amputation) had dislocated at 90deg. The vet x-rayed and found the ligament had snapped. She operated and stitched it back together and like your hound, she had to have a bandage for 2 weeks.
It was very frightening when the bandage came off as I was convinced it would go again. The problem was that she had no toe next to it for support and amputation was out of the question as she couldn't have coped with both toes missing.
Luckily it was a complete success and never dislocated again. She died recently of heart attack at 12yrs old and the surgery was about 18 months by that time so I would say you have a very good chancce of it being a success
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trouble
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Post by trouble on Jul 10, 2012 14:08:56 GMT -5
Last May my greyhound dislocated her toe. It was bandaged for a couple of days but soon dislocated again.
I said I didn't want her toe amputated so she was referred to Orthopaedic Vet Mike Guilliard. So far he's had 100% success rate with this fix. The procedure is outlined below copied from his website:
Applying an external fixator across the joint, applied to either the top joint (metacarpal/tarsal phalangeal) or middle joint (P1/P2) gives predictable excellent results with minimal surgical interference. The fixator is left in place for three weeks and the dog returned to training seven weeks from the initial surgery.
The principle behind this treatment is that if the joint is held in its normal position for a period of time scar tissue replaces the torn ligaments and provides sufficient support.
Dislocation of the nail joint is simply treated by permanent nail removal taking away the lever across the joint.
All she lost was her toe nail. I have some photo's somewhere I'll try to find of the fixator.
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Post by allthehounds on Jul 11, 2012 1:34:17 GMT -5
Thank you so much for all the advice, good thoughts and taking the time to share all your different experiences. It does sound encouraging that his toe might stay in place but amputation is something we'll consider if need be. Off to the vet again tomorrow for another bandage change so fingers crossed it'll still look ok. I am really nervous about the bandage coming off for good and of course letting Ernie off the lead again for the first time. At least now with all the strapping his toe is secure but once it's all off I suppose anything could happen! Thanks again and I'll keep you posted on his progress.
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